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Please forward any problems and comments to him.
Campus Design, a book by Richard P. Dober written in 1992 and
published by John Wiley & Sons, is must reading for anyone interested in campus
ecology. Dober is a Senior Consultant at Dober, Lidsky, Craig and Associates,
Inc., a consulting firm specializing in campus planning services for educational
settings and is a founder of the Society for College and University Planning.
The book is "must reading" for two reasons: (1) Dober presents useful
concepts for understanding both the process and the outcomes of campus
planning; and (2) Dober has a very enjoyable and readable writing style which
includes the ability to capture the essence of a problem with clever and
descriptive language (Note. Page 4. of this newsletter presents this reviewer's
favorites).
Two concepts give structure to the book and are the key concepts in
campus design: Placemaking and Placemarking. Placemaking is Dober's
concept for the structure of the overall campus design. It includes the "positioning
and arrangement of campus land uses and pedestrian and vehicular routes, the
location of buildings and functional open space, . . . the definition of edges, and
the interface between campus and environs. " Placemaking can serve to establish
an "institutional metaphor."
Placemarking focuses on "certain physical attributes which give a campus
a visual uniqueness. . . " The elements involved in developing a campus
uniqueness are noted as the following by Dober: Landmarks, style, materials, and
landscapes. A combination of these elements can lead to the campus contributing
to a "sense of place."
Why are these concepts important to campus design? Dober suggests
several responses to this question: (1) Every campus should have the opportunity
to be unique, (2) Important to institutional survival is the attractiveness and
distinctiveness of the campus setting, (3) Renewed attention is important due to
the "deplorable conditions of college and university campuses."
After introducing the concepts of placemaking and placemarking and
establishing their importance, Dober then gives rich and practical examples from
his own work with 345 college and university campuses worldwide. Part One of
the book focuses on placemarking with a focus on landmarks, style, materials,
and landscapes. How these elements communicate meaning will be of special
interest to campus ecologists. Part Two of the book returns to the concept of
placemaking with a strong section on the placemaking process which is very
supportive of the campus ecology concepts of "participatory planning" and the
"ecosystem design process."
For this reviewer, the book Campus Design was enlightening, enjoyable, and a bit embarrassing in that it has taken me so long to "run" into Dober's work. Hopefully, this review will shorten the time for the readers of The Campus Ecologist.
The physical world in which we carry out our everyday lives has social
meaning. We see the created works of our society and these works, whether they
be practical in function or artistic in purpose, elicit a wide range and intensity of
emotion.
Physical environments and their artifacts send strong non-verbal
messages. We have all experienced walking onto a campus and immediately
feeling a " sense of belonging." We have all experienced the opposite, a campus
that is uninviting.
A critical part of this communication pattern is the array of messages sent
by the setting's physical artifacts; the posters, the art, the statuary, the objects, the graffiti, the signs, and the physical structures themselves. The nature and pattern of physical artifacts structure the content of the messages to be sent.
From this perspective, the campus can be viewed as a powerful non-verbal
communicator of campus values . What do these artifacts communicate about
campus values to those students who fall under a broad definition of
multiculturalism: female students, students of color, students of different ethnic
backgrounds, differently-abled students, students of different religions, or
students of different sexual orientations?
A Taxonomy for Classroom Understanding
Cultural Artifacts
To answer the question of what do campus settings communicate to
specific groups, a taxonomy or classification system is needed.
The taxonomy (See Page 3) has four dimensions: (1) The content of the
message; (2) The evaluative impact of the message; (3) Multicultural groups; and
(4) The type of physical artifact sending the message. By using this classification
system the multicultural significance and impact of each campus physical artifact
can be ascertained.
The Content of the Message
Messages of physical artifacts can be placed in four groups, although many of the non-verbal artifact messages may fall in one or more groups. These groups are: (1) Messages of belonging; (2) Messages of safety; (3) Messages of equality, and (4) Messages regarding roles. Again, the artifacts may send multiple mes sages.
The Evaluative Impact of Physical Artifacts
The impact of the environment or of a physical artifact can vary from
being overtly negative to overtly positive in regard to the concept of
multiculturalism.
The Multicultural Groups
Campus physical artifacts can be interpreted from a number of
multicultural perspectives. The taxonomy being presented allows for a variety of
groups to be included; (1) Gender; are there messages specifically about or for
males or females, (2) Race; are there messages specifically about or for
AfroAmericans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans or other racial
groups. (3) Ethnicity; are there specific messages about or for particular ethnic
groups. (4) Religion; do the campus artifacts give specific religious messages,
and (5) What are the messages regarding sexual orientation?
Types of Physical Artifacts in Schools
Artifacts are objects made by the people of the culture and take a variety
of forms, but within the campus environment they most often fall into four
categories: (1) Art; these artifacts take the form of art work including paintings
and posters placed in campus buildings and statuary that may be a part of the
campus, (2) Signs; signs fall within several categories, including official signs,
unofficial signs, and illegitimate signs. (3) Graffiti is often viewed as an "
illegitimate sign," but because of its ubiquitous nature on campus it is given
separate status in the classification system, (4) Architecture; the physical
structures of the campus can also send important messages.
Summary
The physical artifacts of our culture are powerful non-verbal
communicators of our values. It is important as we design campuses that the
artifacts of the campus be reviewed in terms of content and impact on specific
groups within the campus environment. The taxonomy on page 3 will assist in
this review.
Editor's note: Dr. Sharon Bartels is a School Psychologist with the Poudre
R-1 School District in Fort Collins, Colorado and is on leave to serve as an
Assistant Professor in the School of Occupational and Educational Studies at the
Colorado State University.
ARTIFACTS:
ART (STATUARY. POSTERS. MONUMENTS)
MESSAGES OF BELONGING
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF SAFETY
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF EQUALITY
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF ROLES
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
SIGNS (OFFICIAL. UNOFFICIAL)
MESSAGES OF BELONGING
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF SAFETY
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF EQUALITY
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF ROLES
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
GRAFFITI (BATHROOMS, WALLS)
MESSAGES OF BELONGING
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF SAFETY
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF EQUALITY
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF ROLES
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral ;Positive; Overtly Positive)
ARCHITECTURE (PHYSICAL STRUCTURES)
MESSAGES OF BELONGING
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF SAFETY
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF EQUALITY
Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MESSAGES OF ROLES
(Overtly Negative; Negative; Neutral; Positive; Overtly Positive)
MULTICULTURAL GROUPS:
| Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Religion; Disability; Sexual Orientation |
|
|
On Campus Design:
"Campus design is the art of campus planning, the culminating act of those processes and procedures that give form, content, meaning, and delight to the physical environment serving higher education. Designs thus created can define and celebrate a sense of place; communicate an institution's purpose, presence, and domain; and generate an image charged with symbolism, graced by history." Page 1.
"Campus design methods, obviously, should aim to promote a sense of place that will be favorably remembered because the campus works well functionally, is attractive aesthetically, and helps symbolize the institutions' history and existence." Page 13
On Landmarks:
"Landmarks are cultural currency. Buildings, monuments, garden - fragments of a larger scene, these are the medium of exchange through which one generation honors another, contributors to a sense of place." Page 5
On Brick:
"Codes, costs, and fashion favored brick. If campus architecture had genes, these three factors would be the DNA of thousands of American college buildings." Page 145
On Landscape:
"A campus without landscape is as likely as a circle without circumference, an arch without a keystone, an ocean without water. " Page 167
"The visual experiences begin in the environs as one approaches the campus, travels to the campus edges, enters the gateways and moves through the campus to various destinations. " Page 167
"Landscapes are art forms. Plant materials can be used in a painterly fashion, adding color and texture to architectural compositions, or as aesthetic objects in their own right. Certain plants are nature's clocks." Page 169.
On Parking:
"Too often in the guise of privilege and necessity, accommodations for the automobile have come to take precedent over all other campus design considerations. The time has come to put the park back in parking, for there are few campuses whose design would not be immediately improved if parking were treated as a landscape element." Page 227
"If campus design were a theological statement, there would be only one deadly sin: the presence of parking in the wrong location." Page 227
This material resides on an Indiana State University server and is maintained by
Will Barratt.
Please forward any problems and comments to him.