Designing a liberal arts campus in New Zealand

Abstract

“A costly edifice ought not to be left to rest upon a single pillar.” – The Yale Report of 1828

The complete absence of any liberal-arts style education makes New Zealand tertiary education sector unique in the English speaking world.

A liberal arts education aims at an intersection of science with literature and knowledge with persuasion. It is a solid, balanced education at a bachelor’s level.

The benefits of a well-rounded education are well known, and written about extensively. The architectural problem is “If a liberal arts college were to exist in New Zealand, how can its campus best be designed to encourage this well-rounded education?”

Developing a strong sense of community, both within and outside the college, lies at the heart of the liberal arts philosophy. With a strong, diverse community, differing perspectives can be synthesized into a common understanding, based on unchanging, fundamental principles.

The design of the campus is instrumental in developing this sense of community. This happens on many scales: the urban design of the campus, the relationships between the building's functions, sizes, movements and sight lines and the planning and form of the buildings themselves (materiality, size, orientation, detailing).

This had been realized using fundamental design principles as laid down by Raymond Unwin, Cliff Moughtin and The tutors at Oxford Brookes School of Architecture in their book Responsive Environments.