Episode 55: Introducing Fusion Spaces to College Campuses with Mr. Kona Gray, Principal at EDSA

When it comes to higher education, it's helpful to understand the groundwork and the basis of campus planning and campus design. Mr. Kona Gray, Principal at EDSA, has described this as being rooted in classic architecture, going back to a lot of the work that was done in Italy or England — scenarios that focused on creating places for people and opportunities for students to interact with professors. This type of classic architecture is alive and well in most of the modern campuses, especially the wealthiest campuses. But how much of it is relevant to modern campus efficiency?

Initially, there was a major push for civic architecture and civic landscape architecture to have spaces that were purposeful for people to come, learn, and be educated in. That hasn't changed that dramatically in terms of its essence. But what has changed is the trend towards buildings and spaces becoming more flexible, where there is an opportunity to integrate technology and all sorts of different types of spaces into the understanding that people learn differently today. In the past, students sat in a classroom and a professor gave lectures. Then the students went away, got together in groups, and studied. 

Now, things have changed drastically. Students are actually teaching themselves in more group settings. It's all about collaboration and learning how to problem solve — and not just in one cohort, but in many cases across different cohorts. The pedagogy for education has really been flipped. 

Creating Fusion Spaces

For the creation of his work, Mr. Gray has used the term 'fusion spaces,' where multiple disciplines are being brought together. In the past, there was a building that was specific for mathematics, a building that was specific for chemistry, one for English, and so on. Now, that's not really necessary because students can have these opportunities working together at one particular building, sharing the resources.

Of course, the online space changes the dynamic of learning as well. Now, you can take the great courses from Harvard online, for example. You couldn't do that in the past, but it's given more people access to education as a result, no matter where they are in the world. Mr. Gray has benefited from this as well — he did a real estate certificate through Cornell in the middle of the pandemic, because he wanted to brush up on real estate. Covid has amplified the opportunity for education to be more seamless and to allow people to really stretch the traditional models into something that addresses individuals’ unique needs. Even prior to Covid, a lot of students would go to class or go to universities and many of their courses were still online, even though they were on campus. It has allowed educators to connect and get more information out there without always having to have the physical space.

The Future Is Here

Mr. Gray loved Star Trek growing up, and he recalls the things they were doing and illustrating at the time — and now those things have arrived, with tablets, voice assistants, Oculus, touchscreens, and so on. Although this stuff came to light relatively recently, it was experimented and thought about decades ago. Now, we are seeing the rate of change increase exponentially. It's now getting to a point where we're going to be in a different time period in what feels like minutes and seconds.

There has been a resurgence in highlighting the great outdoors. People have finally remembered the importance of nature and the importance of getting back to the essentials that support us all. While Covid did amplify that paradigm shift, it's not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. For example, Central Park was a result of a cholera outbreak, so that same idea of giving people a place to go and get fresh air and just exist outside is still as important as it's always been. What would New York City be without Central Park? It gives people a place to actually remember that they're human. With Covid, many of Mr. Gray’s clients came to him with, "We can't have all these people in the building. We need places to go outside." People like Mr. Gray have been advocating this for a long time — people need to take advantage of the space between their buildings. 

Using the Space Between Buildings

During Covid, a lot of areas that were previously dedicated to automobiles and circulation were transformed into places for gatherings. Sidewalk cafes now spill out into the street on top of parking areas, and parking lots that had close proximity to a building are now becoming outdoor event spaces. This sort of transformation has put the landscape on a different level, allowing people to take advantage of roofs, parking lots, and other underutilized areas with limited space. This approach to architecture should be normal, and there should be more places for people to have these types of outdoor experiences. As people like Mr. Gray would argue, it's much better for conference-goers to be able to see outside, as opposed to being in a box (building) that's dark and unfulfilling.

There's always a classic sort of order and structure to design that can't be discarded. There are certain elements of a building that allow spaces to fit nicely and feel right. When there's an opportunity to be light on the land, as landscape architects always recommend, it just feels better for people when they can actually integrate with the landscape. It isn't as though the architecture is necessarily supposed to be making some kind of major statement on the land — it's more like people are coming together and becoming one with their environments. That's why all those positive and negative spaces really help people navigate their environments much better.

Connect with Mr. Kona Gray at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kona-gray-86667311/

Learn more about EDSA at https://www.edsaplan.com/

Subscribe and listen to our podcast at IlluminateHigherEducation.com

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