1. Objectives
The increasing demand for new higher education
facilities in the developing countries and the extension and adaptation of
existing university facilities to new requirements in developed countries, are
presenting a number of problems. Architects and planners all over the world are
facing these problems and related research and study is carried out in many
countries. An exchange of information and experiences on the subject and at an
international level is becoming necessary.
The Working Group of the UIA “Educational and
Cultural Spaces” in collaboration with UNESCO and the Technical Chamber of
Greece organized the XI th International Seminar on Educational and
Cultural Spaces on the above subject
The Seminar proposed to examine matters related
to the policy, planning and implementation of higher education facilities.
Special emphasis was given to the growing demand for new uses in existing
shells.
In particular, the Seminar was aiming at an
exchange of experiences and information on:
a. Policies concerning the analysis of the
situation and the determination of objectives.
b. Planning matters such as the academic plan
and the social objective, the location and the site development policy.
c. Implementation procedures and methodology,
such as the functional analysis and the preparation of briefs, the design and
construction as well as the maintenance programmes and policies.
d. Energy consumption methods in buildings of
higher education.
It was expected that the above subjects was
related to the growing demand for the integration of the university with its
immediate environment, urban or otherwise.
This integration concerns not only the physical
aspects but also the cultural ones in which the university becomes a pole of
attraction serving all citizens with its physical facilities and with its
social, academic and cultural potential.
2. CONCLUSIONS
Providing quality education is one of the most
important factors in preparing our global future which has an awareness of
quality. Architectural environments for higher education can make an important
contribution to creating awareness of this quality.
The literature on university planning was
abundant and excellent during the period of rapid growth of higher education in
the 1960s and 1970s. That was a time of great optimism about the future and of
great resource availability. New construction abounded. The current era is quite
a different one: it is characterized by concern to increase the effectiveness of
past financial investments. Restorations and remodeling are the manifestations
of today's policies of constraint. This is happening in parallel with other
important developments such as the rapid growth of open universities and of the
use of information technology to bring classrooms and libraries into homes and
work places.
Useful technical literature on how to address
the new realities is scarce. UNESCO is urged to update its own work of the 1970s
retaining that which remains valid today. This UIA/UNESCO seminar report will
serve to guide UNESCO in that task but will also be of use to architects and
institutions that are embarking on transformations or expansion of existing
higher education institutions. A concerted effort should be made to get these
materials into the hands of people who are making decisions and are directly
involved in planning, design and realization of these institutions.
From the papers presented at the seminar one
can identify five major themes which thread through them.
1. There is a major concern with integrating
higher education institutions into urban areas and a great amount of hard
questioning about the desirability of more isolated and self-contained campuses
in suburban and rural areas.
2. The need for flexibility and change of
existing institutions is more important than ever, as some faculties and
research decline in importance and others grow. This trend has resulted in a
significant increase of change of use of old buildings which had never been
designed for flexibility.
3. Higher education institutions are called
upon to make use of old public (and private) buildings that have historical
importance yet are difficult to adapt to modern commercial use. This provides
these institutions with the opportunity to help preserve the historical
“footprints” of cities and nations.
4. Ensuring a sustainable development that
recognizes the need to conserve or improve the natural and built environment is
a challenge to all architects today. As many higher education institutions are
very large they can make a major contribution to their society in this regard.
5. Cost control is an ever increasing subject
of national and municipal governments the world around. As most higher education
institutions are public, they are under an obligation to prove their cost
effectiveness. Private institutions may be under even greater pressure as
students must justify the high fees they pay.
The Seminar has examined the above themes at
three different stages of institutional development.
I. The development and evolution of policies
linked with drawing up of academic and physical master plans.
II. Determining the needs for specific
buildings (preparing architectural briefs or architectural programmes) and their
design.
III. The use of buildings including keeping
them in good running condition through regular maintenance services
The following seminar conclusions are presented
in a structure that addresses each stage above.
(See -Figure 1)
I. Policy and Planning
The establishment and evolution of institutions
of higher education require that policies for these institutions be fixed and
that master plans be prepared which cover academic, social and physical
development. These master plans may cover a number of department faculties and
also address policies as regards to academic programmes, research capacities, as
well as accommodation and services for students and staff.
***
Ewa Gurney / Zimbabwe, and David Young /
Botswana
IN SEARCH OF THE APPROPRIATE. A VIEW FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA.
Introduction
Appropriate:" suitable” own or “proper”
from the Latin root
The notion of appropriateness, although it has
been with us as long as the word for it, has only begun to be applied to
architecture relatively recently. This is not because we have only now realized
that an appropriate thing is better than an inappropriate one, but because our
appetite for and ability to produce inappropriate solutions has increased
greatly while, at the same Lime, in parts of the world, inappropriate solutions
have become a luxury which we can no longer afford. The search for the
appropriate has not been made any easier by the fact that the complexity
resulting from increasing economic technical and cultural independence is
sometimes beyond the understanding of decision-makers, while the sheer pace of
development required imposes on us a timetable in which there is often no room
for the research necessary for identifying the appropriate solution.
The above is doubly true for the developing
world. Not only has the notion of appropriateness come to us late, but it also
often came not as a notion, but as a ready made “appropriate solution”. It
is amazing how few people realize that “appropriate solutions" do not
travel well.
Although great strides are being made in our
region in many aspects of development, the design of higher education facilities
seems to pose a particular problem as far as appropriateness is concerned. The
reasons for this situation seem to be the following:
Our higher education is modeled on an academic
world culture, tending to spread from the developed to the developing world. To
a relatively unsophisticated public, social function is often associated with
built form, and with the buildings of the developed world, being far better
illustrated than those in the third world, the image of the desirable and
correct facility tends to be the first world model, however inappropriate it may
be for our region’s climate or economic situation.
Higher education facilities are usually
commissioned by the state governments, whose desire to build monuments to
themselves is certainly not without precedent all over the world. While we
accept the idea of the necessary monument, the scale and nature of national
universities, like national airlines, is often a matter of pride rather than
necessity. Many of the educational needs of our region could be more
economically satisfied at a regional level. Political and tribal considerations
also have a history of overriding real needs. Architects often find it quite
difficult to enter into dialogue with economists regarding the resources and
characteristics of our region, while at the same time being as tempted as any to
design and build monuments.
The context
The ten SADC countries define the southern
Africa region for the purposes of this discussion, but we also make reference to
data for sub-Saharan Africa and Botswana. The states in the SADC region are
fairly new, and have tended to have their governments control direct their
economies and educational systems. Past political instability has hampered
progress. There presently appears to be a spirit of cooperation to a greater
degree than previously, which may lead to genuine economic links being
permitted. The region has low GNP and undeveloped human resources are the
reason, despite substantial natural resources.
Typically, schooling in the region comprises
around 7 years for for primary and five years for secondary level. Tertiary
studies include Universities, Polytechnics and various high-level vocational
training colleges. Higher education is seen as being of paramount importance for
Africa’s future,. Sub-Saharan university enrolments have grown from 1200 in
1960 to 440,000 in 1983, but present indications are that the present structure
is unsuitable and the efficacy of the systems is questionable.
The region is characterized by unpredictable
climatic conditions, undeveloped or undervalued natural resources, and above
all, underdeveloped human resources.
Teachers are generally in short supply; staff
development in Africa at tertiary level is lagging badly. Facilities, funds and
staffing generally inefficiently structured. Given this, the pace of development
required, multiplied by a 3% population growth rate and the need to satisfy the
most basic of human needs is not being achieved, despite the fact that certain
states have excessive numbers of graduates in certain fields.
For Botswana. the defined national objectives
are democracy, development, self-reliance and unity. Planning of development has
the objectives of sustained development, rapid growth, economic independence and
social justice. While short-term fluctuations in emphasis occur, the aim is to
balance all of these in the longer term. This set of objectives is not untypical
of states in the region.
In the educational sphere, recent deterioration
is reducing the capacity of Africa's tertiary institutions to contribute to
regional development. These establishments must have their quality restored and
then considerably improved to allow the region to make its own best uses of the
rapid advance of science and technology. Most states, however, will first need
to rearrange their systems to fit present changed economic circumstances, before
moving on to improvements. Institutions, campuses, departments and programmes
need to be combined into larger, more viable units. Staffing, in particular
academic but also non-academic, needs to be reduced while upgrading levels of
relevant training and experience. Student numbers need to be stabilized by
increasing entry and performance requirements while introducing the notion of
real costs for board and lodging, this being mitigated for genuine cases of
need. From this, a sound base would be established to expand necessary graduate
numbers and the scope of the research and community activities presently
struggling to survive. The utilization of existing facilities and the planning
of new ones is an integral part of such restructuring.
Although the advantages of appropriate
solutions seem self-evident, we would like to highlight the penalties imposed on
our region by this often unconscious preference for the inappropriate ones.
These costs, while mostly hidden, are becoming unsupportable to our
resource-starved economies and social systems.
Proportionally high expenditure on higher
education deprives other , often more necessary levels of education of the
necessary funding. Within higher education the proportionally high expenditure
on buildings depletes higher education budgets with the result that there are
insufficient funds for the proper running of the facility.
Inappropriate design with regard to climate
controls often commits the institutions to ever mounting costs of purchasing,
running, maintaining and replacing of mechanical climate controls, while a lot
of unnecessary use of sophisticated materials, construction methods and finishes
make it necessary to employ specialized or highly skilled construction and
maintenance labor, which often needs to be imported and which, even if locally
available, does not come cheap.
The widening gap between the rich and the poor,
while acceptable to most on the rich side, is not part of our Governments'
stated aims and objectives, and yet it can be seen as a result of the continuous
over-provision for the needs of the upper strata of our societies.
The graduates of higher education institutions
often either leave for richer countries in search of the high standard, to which
they have become accustomed, or stay on only to take up what they think is their
rightful place among the country’s new aristocracy. Some also show signs of
becoming permanent students, highly qualified but not contributing to the
society.
The tertiary facility
Adverse economic conditions bring the need for
appropriate solutions into sharp relief and have produced very satisfactory results
in secondary and vocational facilities where funding was restricted. The search
for such solutions should be equally rigorous at each level of planning.
Academic plan
Various historical and social phenomena have
created a number of models, thorough understanding of which is necessary in
deciding whether any one of those is applicable, or whether the project is
without precedent. This, in turn, calls for an in-depth understanding of the
context i.e. the role that is, should be and could be played by the institutions
of higher learning in our society. As this is to a certain extend a political
decision, politicians should be expected to participate in its making. Their
influence should be moderated by those professionally involved in academic,
social and related development issues.
Higher education has a particularly important
role to play in the society, and is seen as the “engine which pulls the
train”. While not in any way disagreeing with the basic logic of this
approach, we feel that better use of resources in could have an important impact
on education as a whole. If, through increased funds, better education was
provided at primary and secondary levels, as well as better vocational training,
not only would there be an improvement in the quality of higher education, but
also the “train” could begin to be partly self-propelled.
The social benefits of improved primary and
secondary education are particularly important in a region undergoing such swift
and profound economic and social change. The population’s ability to become
more than passive spectators has to be improved and understanding of the forces
governing peoples lives has to be fostered if culture and self-esteem are to be
preserved and developed.
The priority assigned to various fields of the
economic and social development process should be reflected in the academic
planning in order to correct present imbalances. Also to be taken into account
is the fact that our region does not exist in isolation and that the process of
building up of our higher education system is, of necessity. a very gradual one.
External help is and will continue to be needed for many years to come.
Specialists in subjects with a relatively limited social or cultural content can
continue to be imported from other regions for a long time to come without any
drastically negative effects, while others, whose field of expertise is closely
related to local conditions, such as architecture, should be trained locally,
Programmes for regional co-operation in the
field of higher education should be developed or strengthened, thus removing the
unnecessary burden of providing a full range of higher educational opportunities
on every individual country. Consideration must also be given to rationalizing
existing facilities, departments and teaching programmes to improve their
viability.
Courses should be provided that can make use of
existing employers, whose potential for training and education should be
maximized. Part-time and distance courses should be given a higher priority,
thus giving more students the opportunity of financing their own higher
education, while utilization of physical facilities should ensure year-round
use. Courses of long duration should be, whenever possible, split up into
smaller components so that studying could be interrupted with periods of work,
which could not only make it financially easier for the students in a more
market-oriented milieu, but also allow for some practical application of newly
acquired expertise.
The scope of the grown facility must be clearly
and realistically considered in order to properly plan for growth.
The project team
The architects of our region, while as well
trained as any, are often considered by the client not to be quite equal to the
task of planning and designing something as big and complicated as a university.
The result is that foreign firms are often invited to do the job. Those foreign
firms are, and reasonably so, chosen for their experience in designing
facilities of a similar nature. Unfortunately, they often apply a number of
“stock solutions”, perceiving the problem to be mostly functional or
aesthetic in nature. However, while this may be the case in the developed world,
this is decidedly not so in our region.
The choice of architect, whether local or
imported, often leaves much to be desired. Local architects sometimes get
government commissions as a result of a rota system which, while seemingly fair,
is often simply a way of avoiding making potentially contentious decisions by
the client. The decision is obviously easier in the case of expansion of an
existing facility, or where the system has been in existence for long enough to
give the local architects a chance to become specialized. When imported
architects are commissioned, it is often for reasons of their “star
quality”, where the chances are that the architects main concern may be to
perpetuate this image, rather than to find appropriate solutions to a local
problem.
As mentioned above, because of the scale of the
undertaking as well as the perceived national importance of the institutions of
higher learning, in most cases it is the government that is the client. In
addition to the specific disadvantages of having a government ministry or
department for a client, where many problems arise out of perceived higher
status ot a government employee over any other person, all the usual
disadvantages of having the client who is not the user are present.
The most negative result of this often less
than satisfactory relationship between the architect and the client is usually a
lack of a coherent brief (such as a “building program”). Although it is
perfectly understandable that there may not be sufficient expertise or
experience within the client body to prepare such a document, this lack is very
often not recognized or acknowledged, nor is the necessary expertise allowed to
be imported, usually for financial reasons.
As it can be said that a good building is a
product of not only a good architect, but a good client and a good relationship
between the two, it is most important that this be achieved. Following are some
recommendations which we feel would improve the situation in this respect and,
hopefully result in appropriate solutions:
The client body should, whenever possible, be
composed of not only the financial backers but also of educational specialists,
members of the academic staff, administration, housekeeping, maintenance and
students, all of whom should be advised by an independent, accomplished and
locally experienced architect/planner. The region has a number of established
higher education facilities, whose own planning units employ a number of persons
fitting this description. In the case of a brand new institution, the academic
appointments have usually not yet been made, which makes arriving at a detailed
brief without competent guidance from experienced academics impossible.
It is often of benefit to have the firm/s of
architects selected through a competition for an overall master plan, with the
brief for that competition having been prepared by the client body, as described
above. The jury should be composed of a selected number of representatives of
the client body, with an additional regionally recognized architect.
The more detailed brief (building programme)
for the individual buildings and external spaces should be developed with the
participation of the architect chosen for the master plan, and of future members
of the faculty and staff. If such appointments have not yet been made, or if
their experience is limited, external specialist consultants should be brought
in, though their influence should be moderated by persons with local expertise.
If the scope of the project is too large for
the winning architectural firm to handle, the selected firm should be allowed to
enter into an association with other practices, preferably with the runners-up
in the competition, in order to maintain control over the entire project. This
kind of authority can be put to a practice only if the aims and objectives of
the winning master plan are very clearly defined and satisfy an equally
carefully designed brief.
Analysis of requirements
Once the brief (building/project program) is
clear, the standards and regulations which are appropriate and/or required must
be considered and defined. Appropriate standards are a contentious area, and may
be particularly difficult to define in ways that reconcile environment, access,
hazard, space and fittings with each other and the financial constraints. The
issue must, however, be confronted as the concept of appropriateness hinges on
these decisions.
The staff employed by our higher education
facilities are often recruited in the developed world and bring with them
demands for excessively high standards as preconditions for their employment.
This factor must be taken into consideration.
A particular requirement, because of the
substantial residential component typical in the region, is the need for the
institutions to function as communities. This function should be recognized and
the positive aspects of this feeling of community should and can be reinforced
with appropriate planning. What we feel should not be emphasized is the
difference between this and all the other existing communities. Exclusivity
breeds without any help from the planners. Isolated sites impose notable extra
costs in creating an entire social and municipal infrastructure.
Site criteria
Choice of site: Although this decision is
usually made at an early stage and for reasons often unrelated to its
suitability for the purpose, we feel that it would be an improvement if the
brief allowed for a choice between several available sites, a situation still
possible in our region where large pockets of land are still held either by
central or local government. This choice should be well justified, with the
quality of the justification being a fairly good indication of the architects’
grasp of the overall impact and significance of the proposed development. The
brief should be specific about the initial size of the project, its envisaged
rate of development and its optimum size. The growth aspect is of particular
importance in our situation and should be dealt with decisively in this initial
stage.
Use of site: Although the cost of land is still
comparatively low, it is a finite resource and as such should not be allowed to
be wasted. An optimum density should be arrived at, which on the one hand limits
the necessity for use of mechanical lifts, while on the other leaves a
sufficient amount of open space for light, ventilation and other uses. Our
climatic conditions permit extensive use of outdoor spaces, which can be
enhanced with a minimum of intervention. The patterns of social interaction also
increase the value of open space as a venue for socializing, and such usage
should be promoted wherever possibilities exist.
Although our region does not abound in
buildings which have outlived their uses, the idea of using existing buildings,
even if already occupied by another institution, should be considered. The
advantages seem to outweigh the discomforts with the main benefits being that
the actual teaching can begin much earlier than if it had to wait for the
completion of the building programme, and that the staffing is completed in time
for the
Preparation of brief (project/building programme)
As described in the previous section, the brief
becomes the single most important input into a successful design. It should be
prepared in several stages with various carefully defined degrees of detail. The
amount of research necessary for its successful formulation should be foreseen
and budgeted for. Any attempted savings at this stage are likely to result in
increased expenditure later.
***
staff members to be given their say in the
formulation of the detailed requirements for their respective departments.
Design
The architect engaged in developing a brief targeting
appropriateness is likely to carry this attitude through to the design stage.
The final product should avoid paying mere lip-service to the idea. Application
of the idea should also tend to produce some design consistency in the
developing campus in reflecting local resources and climate. An example is the
initial architecture and planning for the University of Botswana, while a lack
of concern shows in recent work on the campus.
Services, construction and maintenance
We are not generally in a position to run
sophisticated energy generation schemes for a campus. Universities use the
public utilities for electricity, water, drainage and solid waste removal, with
the exception of medical training facilities with incinerators. Appropriate here
relates more to suitable thermal design and minimizing of artificial
illumination, as well as to ensuring that there is space and access for easy
maintenance of the municipal services. There is a need to design for fault
tolerance in situations where services/maintenance are in question.
Preference should be given to common or popular
construction methods, materials and components.
Critical in maintaining academic standards is
the ability to obtain spare parts for maintenance and repair 0+ equipment,
routine replacement, upkeep and upgrading of plant, utilities~ vehicle and
equipment, and supplies of necessary consumables. We note the sad report from
Ibadan in Nigeria that “for several months now we have been expected to run a
physics laboratory without electricity, perform biology and zoology experiments
without water and get accurate readings from microscopes blinded by use and
age” as a not uncommon phenomenon.
Conclusion
Africa needs to use its resources far more
effectively, and we believe that appropriate development of tertiary education
facilities can make a notable contribution.
