ABSTRACT
University design is a civic art form. This is a lofty claim, yet the
following sweep through its rich history from its medieval beginnings
to the landmark buildings of the present day, will serve to demonstrate
how social, philosophical and cultural forces have come to mould
academic design of each era. The university buildings and campuses
encountered in this discussion are often not the clear and consistent
reflections of their cultural moment. From the medieval universities,
whose proliferation and physical form was much shaped by the
burgeoning of the city, to the colonial colleges of the fledgling
United States, envisaged as expressions of the utopian social ideals
of the American imagination, to the modernist visions of post-war
institutions, products of the push to democratize higher education,
university architecture is an architecture of ideology. This chapter will
chronicle the history of campus architecture as a condensed narrative
of the most energetic and innovative phases of university design
over the last 900 years. This methodology omits many countries
and institutions, focusing predominantly on the United Kingdom,
continental Europe and the United States, the centres of the most
stimulating achievements in this field.
