Umeå University invests in interactive environments
NEWS
Creative environments are an important strategic area of Umeå University's new vision document. Now the university is planning an initiative to develop five venues into new and exciting meeting places for students, researchers, teachers and collaborative partners. This initiative is unique in Sweden.
Open, flexible, functional and challenging are some of the key words to describe the new environments. “The university is a place for learning, research, meetings and exploration. This is very much influenced, stimulated and constrained by the environment. We want the new interactive environments to be places that enhance and strengthen collaborations. They will help to create interdisciplinary knowledge,” says Lena Gustafsson, vice-chancellor at Umeå University.
Thanks to its central campus, Umeå University has favourable pre-conditions for cooperation across disciplinary borders even today. Umeå Arts Campus and HUMlab are further examples of interactive venues. “Now is the time to take the next step, and we want to do it properly,” says Lena Gustafsson, and explains that there are plans for new research on interactive environments linked to the initiative.
In the first stage, five places have been selected: the Humanities Building, the Social Sciences building, the atrium of the MIT building, the ninth floor at the university hospital and the KBC building - places that are spread out across the campus. The lessons learned from the work with these five environments will serve as a basis for future efforts.
“There is a growing interest in the importance of space as a factor for learning in higher education,” says Anders Fällström, deputy vice-chancellor for education at Umeå University. “Today's students like to be involved, active and experimental in their learning. That requires rooms beyond traditional lecture halls.”
The interactive environments will be attractive to students, researchers, teachers and collaborative partners. “Above all, we believe that it will be interesting places where these groups meet each other - places where new ideas and thoughts can evolve,” says Anders Fällström.
Internationally, there are examples of similar initiatives, for instance at Stanford University in the United States. ”But we are definitely first in Sweden,” says Anders Fällström. The work on the interactive environments is led by Patrik Svensson, director of HUMlab, and Lisbeth Lundahl, professor at the Department of Child and Youth Education, Special Education and Counselling
The university management will decide on the funding of the new environments at the university board meeting on 6 November.
Caption: The renovation of the humanities building will be combined with a new concept of interactive environments. Photo: Sweco (to be included when publishing).
For further information, please contact:
Anders Fällström, deputy vice-chancellor for education at Umeå University Telephone: 070-493 85 27 E-Mail: anders.fallstrom@adm.umu.se
Lena Gustafsson, vice-chancellor at Umeå University Telephone: 073-079 42 91 E-Mail: lena.gustafsson@adm.umu.se
