On the way to the campus of tomorrow

This paper summarises the outcomes of the exploratory project of the Department of Educational Technologies at the University of Basel published in Lernumgebungen an der Hochschule. Auf dem Weg zum Campus von morgen [Learning environments at university. On the way to the campus of tomorrow.] (Škerlak et al., 2014) in a review paper and supplement these in a particular consideration of the role of university libraries. This project examined what “the campus of tomorrow” might look like and which steps will take us there.

Together with users of university premises and designers of learning environments, this project looked at “the campus of today” and drafted collective propositions “for the campus of tomorrow” within the scope of five workshops and subsequent studies, interviews and dicsussion.

In the process, it became clear in which fields of tension between different needs and requirements the university is moving with respect to designing its space and services. Knowing the poles of these fields of tension, making deliberate decisions and finding a campus-wide balance together with future users, appears to be fundamental to new building, service and campus concepts. During this development of spaces and concepts, it is particularly worthwhile to consider individual institutions, such as the library, more within the context of the campus as a whole and to intensify the cooperation of different stakeholders of the university for this purpose.

During this development of spaces and concepts, it is particularly worthwhile to consider individual institutions, such as the library, more within the context of the campus as a whole and to intensify the cooperation of different stakeholders of the university for this purpose. This holistic approach and the suggestion of specific fields of tension within which the university has to develop its learning spaces offers new perspectives on campus and library development.