Architektura szkół wyższych w rozwoju historycznym

• Authors: Michał Pszczółkowski

Title variants

EN

The architecture of colleges in historical development (until 1939)

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Academic architecture from the very beginning of its existence, has been connected with the idea of academic collegiality, which itself, reaches back to the medieval times. In the 13th and 14th centuries, there evolved, the so called, collegia (colleges). Being a typical structure, a collegium was a complex of buildings gathered around a courtyard, which was a place of everyday dealings, daily activities, and leisure. The most characteristic idea for the collegial architecture was the shared living and studying as per Robert de Sorbon’s motto: vivere socialiter et collegialiter et moraliter et scolariter. In addition, the fact of concentrating the colleges within individual streets or quarters, allowed the university to emerge as an individual entity in the city structure. In the modern era, the university opened onto the outside world in accordance with the ideals of the Renaissance humanism. It was mainly expressed in an effort to integrate the teaching and representation functions in large, representative buildings of a monumental nature. However, on the British Isles, the college remained the basic teaching unit, and therefore served as an organizational model for the colonists of North America who were raising the foundations of civilization in the New World. The first universities of the New World were built in isolation from urban structures, in natural setting, surrounded by forests, lakes, hills etc. Unfettered space possibilities made it possible that the rule of a rigid, trapezius-like college was abandoned in favour of a loose, spontaneously shaped arrangement, and the part of the courtyard was taken over by a central square – the forum. In such a way, the characteristic structure of an American university campus was developed. The European architecture adopted the campus model relatively late. Although first suggestions for such structures were presented in the 19th century, none of these ideas, however, went beyond the sphere of mere design. Just before the outbreak of World War II, under the auspices of the leaders of the authoritarian states, an initiative of building complete academic campuses was taken. The science, being part of the national culture, was of the ideological importance, which, combined with the common tendency towards gigantism in construction, brought the model results in the form of large-scale assumptions.

Keywords

EN

architecture of colleges in historical development; academic architecture

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów
• Journal: Analecta. Studia i Materiały z Dziejów Nauki
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1-2(42-43)
• Pages: 167-190

Contributors

author

Michał Pszczółkowski

• Katedra Architektury i Urbanistyki Uniwersytet Zielonogórski