Ricerc@Sapienza

Since its 1970 competition winning entry for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, the university campus or, more generally, educational buildings, has consistently been one Henning Larsen’s research themes. It remains one of the fields of the greatest experience and interest for the Danish architectural studio. In this sense, the University of Southern Denmark Campus Kolding, completed in 2014, can be considered a manifesto of the progressive deconstruction of the spaces of learning produced by sweeping changes to how we understand education; changes marked by an ever deeper gap between the traditional concept, based on “teaching,” on the classroom lesson—the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student—and a new concept based on “learning” through an interdisciplinary and interactive approach—guided though ultimately less rigid and more autonomous—to education. For Henning Larsen Architects, the crucial point of university buildings seems to be the relationship and articulation between “formal” spaces, that is to say formally defined, complete and thus suitable for traditional teaching, and “informal” and undefined spaces open to free and active learning; places in which knowledge is no longer exclusive but shared; places in which students can truly play an active and responsible role in their education.