Real Learning in Cafes
(based on material from Planning Office
archives)
Issue: Coffee shops, bookstores, and little restaurants are as vital to the process of education and personal growth as labs and exams. Without them, the university is not a complete educational milieu, and they are often where the most creative interactions take place.
Principle: Incorporate cafˇs and shops into the fabric of the campus, on busy corners and at activity nodes, so that they are accessible to the general campus population and can provide a mixing place for disparate elements of the campus community.
Sustainable Development
Issue: The development, repair, maintenance, and operations of the UO today have an impact on the local environment and the ability of future generations to thrive. The physical environment of the university -- landscape and buildings -- must also support and enhance the excellence of our academic programs.
Principle: The UO will strive to become a national leader in sustainable development. All development, redevelopment, and remodeling on the UO campus shall incorporate sustainable design principles including existing and future land use, landscaping, building, and transportation plans. Sustainable endeavors will support the universityÕs missions of teaching, research, and public service. (see UO Sustainable Development Plan).
Universal Design
Issue: Buildings sometimes discriminate against people just as effectively as laws traditions, and prejudices. The narrower the range of physical needs that is being designed for, the less supportive the resulting built place will be for the broad spectrum of users. This building will be here for many years, during which it is almost certain that students, faculty, visitors, parents, and others with the full range of needs (mobility, size, vision, hearing, etc.) will use all parts of it. If their needs are not considered fully in the process either their future participation will be limited or denied, or the facility will need to be changed when these needs become evident. From a legal, moral, or practical point of view, it is much better to anticipate their needs and create an inclusive environment that is both useful and welcoming to all.
Principle: Design the project using the principles of universal design, considering the broadest range of physical needs from infants to the elderly, for the ambulatory and the mobility impaired, the sighted and the blind, and so forth, resulting in an inclusive, welcoming built environment.
Building Design Principles
Living Learning Center
Issue: Until the university integrates living and learning with new facilities that are so successful that they attract both academic and residential communities, these two elements of the campus community will continue to feel estranged from each other. The Living Learning Circle / Student Housing Distribution principle has been a guideline at the UO since the 1970s but has yet to be put in place.
Principle: Build a network of integrated living-learning facilities that serve both new residential facilities as well as providing the structure upon which to integrate some existing residence halls with the academic life of the campus. This network of new and old should be conceived as a whole although implemented in parts. It should use programmed elements