UniverCITY
Alberto de Salvatierra (Mexican/American)
David Douglas (American)
Carley Pasqualotto (American)
Kyle Saca (American)
Company: PROXIIMA
The increasing digitalization of education is set to critically redefine higher learning. However, rather than examine a university’s media and methods, this project seeks to catalyze a university’s infrastructure, ormilieu. Often operating at the scale of a neighborhood, universities can be an incredible waste of space when classes are not in session. And even when they are, their building density is poor—often luxuriating in vast campuses across large areas. In the age of climate change where population is set to reach 9 billion by 2050, universities have an opportunity to use one of their most significant assets—space—and flexibly redensify for an increased population while serving as a model of socio-ecological sustainability. UniverCITY therefore deploys nine thousand repurposed shipping containers within an existing, 1.6km2 campus to serve as a case study on the feasibility of urban redensification. The containers act as a datum that reorganize a new grid system optimized for pedestrians—deprioritizing vehicles and ignoring parking lots. Additionally, UniverCITY encourages students, faculty and staff to more communally live amongst its educational buildings rather than commute, and ultimately extend knowledge sharing dynamics beyond the classroom to an entire city—affordably innovating on spatial opportunities.