What changes will influence how we design the educational campus in the future? How will education be delivered and what will the future campus look like? How will students interact with it and what will the touch points be?

The Campus of the Future report highlights Arup’s Foresight and Innovation group’s opinion on the future of the campus. It summarises some of the key Drivers of Change and gives examples of innovative campus environments, both physical and digital, that are leading the way around the world.

The report covers four thematic areas which we believe will prove instrumental in shaping the future of higher education. We think these will all redefine the notion of the campus in terms of its design, the services it enables and the way in which it operates. The four themes are:

1. Students of the future: their needs and expectations
2. Changing the delivery of higher education
3. Physical facilities and learning environments
4. Skills needed by future employers

Each of these sections is supported by a number of case studies, Twitter thoughts and scenarios that illustrate the drivers shaping change and what the campus might look like decades into the future.

Campus of the Future provides valuable insights for anyone working in the design or management of educational facilities. We hope that it will challenge architects and designers to think more effectively about the relationship between the online and the physical, and to enable future students to study in a environment that effectively meets their changing needs.

Buy the paperback on Lulu or login / register to download full report:

Campus of the Future

If you would like more information about this report or any other Arup Foresight Innovation + Incubation services, please contact foresight@arup.com

The headquarters provide a place for activists, architects, artists, city-dwellers, designers, engineers, homeowners, and planners to research, discuss, plan, develop, and present initiatives to accommodate native London ‘animal clients’. On 31st October Urban Lab/UCL Environmental Institute held a research workshop Insect City exploring the relationships between insects and cities. 

Content on display in the space ranges from simple wood nest-boxes that any local resident could construct and strategically install at home, to information about broad master planning – Arup’s core activity – for urban wildlife corridors throughout the city. The space also features areas for the evolving display of estate prototypes, work stations about each of the 11 native London animal clients, a conference room for meetings and presentations, a resource library, and a place to consult with local urban wildlife experts. 

The exhibition continues until 20th January 2012. 

Animal Estates Link 

Arup Phase 2 on Facebook

A regeneration accelerator called the International Building Exhibition (Internationale Bau Ausstellung), has commissioned a series of projects that are together helping regenerate the island, home to a marginalized and largely immigrant population.

The island lies to the south of downtown Hamburg and can be reached within two stops from the city centre on the S Bahn. The river island’s development to date has been largely industrial, encompassing massive port areas and logistics operations located in and around the islands’ western fringes. The eastern part of the island comprises a significant amount of productive agricultural land. The island’s large central swathe is mostly residential. However a network of dykes, rail lines and highways have lacerated the area, creating non-porous borders that have contained and constrained a number of deprived neighborhoods.

The IBA have funded a range of creative projects designed to regenerate the island, engage the community and put Elbe island on a low carbon footing. They include an educational project called the Learning Metropolis, linking together 100 facilities to for neighbourhood clusters to act as community centres offering different educational, sports and social activities. Another is the Energy Bunker, which will repurpose a disused military bunker to house a woodchip burning furnace and solar array. Other projects include a floating youth hostel, a wind farm and a programme that promotes inter-cultural exchange. The local authorities are also working with the IBA on an initiative to tear down the fencing around the island’s dykes, so that the corridors can become public spaces for leisure pursuits like running and biking.

The students seemed very inspired by their immersive experience, working and living in a temporary building inside a park in the Wilhelmsburg district. They were also inspired by the Drivers of Change cards, which have helped them think about the trends and issues shaping the future of the area (community, transport and water were most popular themes identified). One group is working on a food project, to encourage markets and barter trading among food growers and allotment owners. Another is looking at opportunities to infill areas adjacent to transport hubs, where existing infrastructure allow for strategic densification.

There are strong parallels here with East London, a post industrial zone built on a system of waterways and rivers. Similarly, a number of strategic projects are ensuring that the area develops along a low carbon trajectory. The Green Enterprise District, the Sustainable Industries Park and the London Thames Gateway Heat Network are all helping transform the area into a sustainable hub. Time will tell how successful these public private initiatives in both London and Hamburg will be, but for the moment the future is looking green.

Links:

http://udn-hcu-hamburg-iss2011.blogspot.com/
http://udn.hcu-hamburg.de/wordpress/

TED is a well-recognized, global brand associated with cutting-edge thinking, intelligent design and innovation. The TED events attract many influential thinkers and is seen as a forum for discussion and exchange on topical issues. It has an online and physical following of millions
of people worldwide. As such, the association we at Arup have built with TED through our partnership reinforces Arup’s own brand as an innovative, multi-disciplinary design consultancy and as a responsible global citizen; Arup makes a concerted effort to work with reputable
organizations such as WEF and the C40 to tackle major global challenges. Our participation in TED reinforces our commitment to working with inspiring people and our aspiration to shape a better world through design. This year’s TEDGlobal event brought 70 different nationalities to Edinburgh, Scotland. The four day event explored “new ideas, new science, new technology, new social and political thinking, new art and a new understanding of who we are” and was themed “The Stuff of Life”.

The three TED Alumni from Arup this year were :
Duncan Wilson (Foresight + Innovation Leader UKMEA region, London)
Francesca Birks (Americas Foresight Leader & Sr. Consultant, New York)
Stuart Smith (Director, Building Engineering London D, London)

Read more about inspiring talks from TEDGlobal 2011 on Duncan’s (Emtech primer) and Francesca’s (Global village) blogs

Download the report by the Foresight and Innovation team here

This workshop was run by Arup Foresight as part of the lunchtime series of the strategic futures network, FAN Club 2.0 (registration page). The network aims to provide a place for civil servants, academics and those from business and the voluntary sector to exchange information about good practice in the field and to network with futurists with a wider perspective.

According to the government’s independent climate change advisory body, the target of CO2 emissions by 2025 should be a 50% reduction on 1990, yet there is much contention over whether this is beneficial or unacceptability bad for the economy. Ministers have struggled to reach a common view on what to do to continue progress towards meeting the proposed target of an 80% reduction by 2050.

How does economic growth come about? What level of growth is deemed sufficient before we invest in emission-reduction measures? Does business need only a level playing field of regulation or would some measures damage growth?

Simon Roberts of Arup Foresight introduced the 4see methodology, which draws on analysis of past Gross Domestic Product and other data to identify and explore the impact of various investment choices. Breakout groups considered questions of future growth in demand for services, automation trends in the service sector and options for employment.

Dowload the presentation here

Read interviews with Chris Luebkeman, Director, Foresight and Innovation, whose team created the Drivers of Change cards and Morten Benn of Implement Consulting Group, in the exhibition catalogue published by NAi Publishers. In addition to the 25 projects presented in the exhibition, the book covers a range of other international projects. The publication, which is in English only, is on sale at NAi Booksellers for €29.50 (ISBN 978-90-5662-823-9).

Testify! will be on display at the NAI until 13 November 2011.

What changes will influence how we work in the future? What will the future workplace look and feel like?

The Living Workplace report highlights Foresight opinion on the future of the workplace. It summarises some of the key Drivers of Change and gives examples of workplace environments that are leading the way in innovative design and use of space.

The report covers three key topic areas:

1. the impact of growing cultural and generational diversity
2. the role of new technologies and working patterns
3. the importance of creativity and collaboration for organisational success

Each of these sections is supported by a selection of case studies, Twitter thoughts and scenarios that illustrate the changes happening today and what workplaces might look like in the future.
The Living Workplace provides valuable insights for anyone working in the design or management of offices. We hope that it will help companies find the right balance between technologies and spaces, to enable people to work in an environment that effectively manages diversity, inspires innovation and allows for both happy and productive employees.

Buy the paperback on Lulu or login / register to download full report:

Living Workplace Brochure PDF

If you would like more information about this report or any other Arup Foresight Innovation + Incubation services, please contact foresight@arup.com

All the interviews presented in the article speak to heightened, sustained levels of change and uncertainty in five very different industry sectors: healthcare, education, engineering, technology and finance. All five industries are grappling with a range of drivers shaping a new operational environment, bringing new challenges and opportunities.

Lord Darzi explains how the current economic climate has focussed attention in the healthcare sector on cost savings and efficiency gains. New cost-effective ways of delivering healthcare are required. The sector’s future will rest on its ability to develop innovative solutions that improve access and quality, particularly in the areas of chronic disease management and lifestyle conditions such as obesity.

While the healthcare sector is experiencing a degree of deregulation in the UK, the higher education sector is facing a wave of government regulation. New metrics to measure performance are to be enforced, at a time when budgets are severely constrained. Dr John Green explains that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are being challenged to rethink the ways in which it delivers services. For those research institutions like the Russell Group of universities, there will be more competition for fewer contracts. This may mean that some universities will have to invest in its strengths and cut back in other non-core research areas. For those HEIs that focus solely on teaching, the student will be increasingly seen as a customer.

Simon Kirby paints a different outlook for engineering, from his perspective as Director of Investment Projects for Network Rail. The Government has promised greater investment in rail. However, collaboration is required to deliver value for money, particularly at the local level.

Local partnering is a central theme in Jorg Nowack’s interview on technology. Nowack speaks to Hitachi’s three key strategic goals as it seeks to cement its position not only as a Japanese giant, but as a global giant: sustainability (providing software enabled solutions to help society reduce impacts and harness efficiency gains), convergence (between ITC and engineering to form new products and services) and globalisation (building global presence through collaborative partnerships, mergers and acquisitions).

Despite the recent surge of attention paid to the phenomenon of “land-grab”, the process is nothing new.  The Roman Empire was built upon control of land far beyond Italy.  Africa is no stranger to having its land exploited by wealthier countries after several hundred years of colonial rule; indeed today’s land-grab is often deemed a “neo-colonial” practice and has been referred to as “The New Scramble for Africa”. 

“Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with 2.8 million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 3m hectares of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world’s most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.” (John Vidal in The Observer, Sunday 7^th March 2010) 

Estimates made by The Observer newspaper claim that up to 50 million hectares of agricultural land (roughly double the size of the UK) have been bought overseas by wealthier countries keen to secure their food supplies.  Alternative estimates made by the International Land Coalition (in a recent article in The Economist) are even higher, claiming that the ownership of almost 80 million hectares of land has been negotiated with international investors.  The focus of this agricultural buy-up has been the continent of Africa, which has supplied over half of all foreign-owned land.  Saudi Arabia has been a significant buyer of land, as it intends to decrease its national production of cereals to conserve its increasingly pressurised water supply.  China too, with its ever-growing population, has recently purchased millions of hectares in Africa. 

But why are nations’ food supplies so precarious in the first place?  The increasing price of oil has forced up the costs of food production, and a need for more agricultural land has also been influenced by EU targets of obtaining 10% of transport fuel from plant-based biofuels by 2015.  Environmental degradation has led to the erosion of soils and the pollution of formerly productive agricultural land in many countries.  Ever-increasing populations also mean that many nations now have a significant number of additional mouths to feed.

Whilst this agri-investment practice may be a sustainable way to shore up food supplies for the importing nations, those nations who are selling the land are placed at increasing risk.  If one country controls another’s agricultural land, siphoning off food supplies, what happens when the second country finds it too is struggling to feed its population?  As it is often the poorest countries which resort to selling their agricultural land and energy resources they do not have the finances to follow suit and buy up land elsewhere.  Their self-sufficiency falls and they become increasingly dependent upon expensive imports.  This can create a downward spiral of dependency and poverty.

These current issues need further consideration at both policy and practical levels.  Foresight examines such issues of self-sufficiency and agri-investment in their Drivers of Change: Food cards.  Explore them further to find out more.

PANELLISTS:
Carol Turley, Senior Scientist, Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Caroline Bennett, Owner of Soseki/Moshi Moshi and founder of PISCES R2R project
Charles Clover, Chairman of Blue Marine Foundation
Greg Haigh, Director and Maritime Business Leader, Arup

Moderated by Chris Luebkeman, Director for Global Foresight + Innovation, Arup

A building in Melbourne recently scored maximum points under the Australian Green Star rating system, and is chasing being the highest scoring LEED and BREEAM rated building in the world.  So can we focus on more pressing outcomes now?

Mike Rainbow explores the ideas above in an article published earlier this month in the green edition of Property Victoria.

Click here to download the full article.