West China Science City

XI'AN, CHINA, 2015

A university campus is an idealized urbanism, a special and exemplary condition. Among its features are its completeness as community and its harmony as an architectural environment. A campus is a place in which a full life can be lead and part of its genius is the spirit of cooperation among those who are dedicated to comparable pursuits. The great campuses—from Cambridge to Harvard to Tsinghua—are also enclaves in which certain problems of the city are solved in an exemplary fashion.  The mix of uses—living, working, dining, recreation, physical culture, etc.—strives for a wholeness that is not characteristic of cities dominated by zoning.  Likewise, the means of mobility are dramatically skewed to favor pedestrians. And, campuses are places where architecture is considered special, not reduced to a series of everyday types and often given the extra emphasis that creates a unique identity.

Credits: J. Gu, Z. Li, Y. Liu, M. Okazaki, M. Sorkin, Y. Sun,