Space Invaders

Invaders from space or invaders of space?

In the classic video game Space Invaders, alien troops march ever closer to the ground.

The only hope to hold back the marching marauders is a single ship with a bevy of bullets.

While the idea for the quarter-eater was a classic sci-fi scenario, invaders from space, I think another meaning is more literal, as in the invading of space.

The fight over space is something anyone who works and lives on a university campus is all too familiar with. There is never enough, especially on historic campuses that are rubbing shoulders with bustling local communities like Cambridge and New Haven.

Clever administrators, however, seem to always find a way to grow. Cornell, Columbia, NYU are all expanding their acreage in one of the densest places on earth. Boston University went up and out to turn a once confusing urban campus into a coherent whole. Harvard Law School erected what many affectionately call Lil' Yankee Stadium on Mass Ave. And Harvard still has Allston in the wings.

But ... who needs space when you have cyberspace?

With the advent of edX and other online learning platforms, the virtual has become the new veritas. Faculty and students can now float in the endless cloud.

And yet, physical space matters---perhaps now more than ever. Space may be what keeps the traditional college and university relevant in the age of the Khan Academy and god forbid, Harvard [or insert any university].com.

At a SEAS faculty meeting Provost Alan Garber made that very point. To paraphrase, he said: We now have to work a lot harder to justify the added value that we bring to higher learning. If we can't do that, we are in real trouble.

So, on this grand Harvard Commencement day, let's give some space to space.

The campus, leafy and luxurious or cinderblocky and cramped, is a sacred place.

The built environment is meaningful. Places communicate. Roofs, walls, and floors all provide cues that help us define where we are and how we are supposed to think and feel. They tell us what a space is for and what is to be expected. To use a concept from the theater, they provide a "set" for our behavior. Buildings tell us how we are supposed to act. ("Engaging Edifices," by Chad Hanson, Chronicle of Higher Education)

10 Akron St. was called “the single most beautiful building or other structure”
recently built in metropolitan Boston.

In short, the college campus is a more than a set decoration, especially at some of the country's most beautiful institutions.

Even graduate housing, can be elevated and elegant, as in the case of 10 Akron St. in Cambridge.

“We partnered with architect Kyu Sung Woo to create a simple but elegant building suited to its prominent location along the Charles River,” said Lisa Hogarty, vice president of Harvard Campus Services. “Contemporary and highly sustainable, this building also respects the architectural traditions of Harvard and the neighborhood surrounding it. We are honored by this award and delighted to count 10 Akron St. among the most beautiful buildings in Boston.”

When stuck with older or often antiquated buildings, novel design is still possible.

The old WGBH studio, likely built in the 1950s/60s and recently taken over by Harvard, was converted into the Innovation Lab for the entire University and "hive" classrooms for the Business School.

Say "Hi" to the i-Lab.

Harvard Business School is buzzing. In part, it’s because students are working in “hives,” new circular, collaborative workspaces. But also because the hives are part of a radical rethink happening here—of everything from the storied school’s established curriculum, its pedagogy, student profiles, and outcomes, to its brand identity and physical spaces. Inspiration for the hives, for example, comes from a company founded by Harvard’s most famous dropout--they have “the look and feel of Facebook’s offices,” Dean Nitin Nohria (left) tells Fast Company.

At SEAS, we converted part our library, situated on the top floor of a 1901 building, into a flexible classroom.

Pierce 301 features an "everything on wheels" approach.

Facebook isn't the only way to be social

Building 20 at MIT, a temporary structure with eternal impact.

Building 20 at MIT, the asbestos filled claptrap (now long gone) has been hailed as an exemplar of how a temporary, low-cost space, garnered with the right attitude/philosophy (as in, smashing a bunch of brilliant people together) can lead to amazing collaborations. You don't need fancy to promote friendships.

The ever prolific Jonah Lehrer riffs on building intellectual collaboration in a New Yorker article.

Nevertheless, Building 20 quickly became a center of groundbreaking research, the Los Alamos of the East Coast, celebrated for its important work on military radar. Within a few years, the lab developed radar systems used for naval navigation, weather prediction, and the detection of bombers and U-boats.

Event better, a Harvard researcher has a study that supports the notion that creating close knit quarters promotes great work:

A few years ago, Isaac Kohane, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, published a study that looked at scientific research conducted by groups in an attempt to determine the effect that physical proximity had on the quality of the research ... Once the data was amassed, the correlation became clear: when coauthors were closer together, their papers tended to be of significantly higher quality. The best research was consistently produced when scientists were working within ten metres of each other; the least cited papers tended to emerge from collaborators who were a kilometre or more apart.

Tours are still tops

Campus tours remain the single most important factor in influencing where a student ends up applying and ultimately going to college. So said a colleague in the Harvard College Admissions Office.

As a school which just started a new college tour, we found out that folks really want to know where they would potentially be living, thinking, and playing. No one asks the guides, "What are the online learning options like?"

Instead, they want to go inside, poke around, see the labs, and the guts of the entire institution. The broader lesson here is that, as communicators, we need to convey how our spaces promote learning, collaboration, and build character. And if your audiences cannot "visit" or access certain spaces, you need to find way to bring them inside anyway.

Harvard did a brilliant thing when it sent photographers into all of the Houses (which are strictly off limits to anyone but those who live there) and showed all the cool hidden spaces, like a basement printing press and a sunken theater.

The university in the city, or in Harvard's case, the square that completes the circle

Even the the most rural higher education institutions do not exist in isolation. Space includes the space in and around the campus.

Middlebury, a liberal arts school in Vermont, takes advantage of nearby farms.

Harvard has the Square. Harvard Square, from the T-stop to the Out of Town News stand, is the first thing that visitors encounter before they step foot onto the Yard.

At the University of Wisconsin, the worked with the city to create an entirely new entryway to the campus, what the New York Times called "a 7-block front door."

University Square added density and activities to an area that was really underutilized,” said Susan A. Springman, a senior project manager at Mullins Group, a commercial developer in Madison and the former president of Executive Management when University Square was under development. “The project really made this area come alive because it complements what’s close by.”

Space, however much or little of it is available, marches on.

Coda

Out my window the campus is filled with capped-and-gowned individuals. The sound of bagpipes still punctuate the air. Families and friends are doing grab-and-grin shots. Hugs and high five are ubiquitous.

As I wrote a year or so ago, it's magic.

 At engineering schools, where we embrace technology and disruption, the classical campus matters. Design has to happen somewhere. Everyone oohs and ahhs over a 3D printer precisely because that CAD/CAM conversion into burnt plastic ends up as an object you can hold and handle.

As we look ahead 5 or 10 years, I think the goal is to have our cake and eat it too. In the era of Le Whif (breathable chocolate invented by one of our own faculty members), there's still nothing that beats a good, old fashioned, icing-laden confection.

Congrats to our grads and thanks for a great year.