Buildings That Foster Collaboration

Matthew Lester, Swarthmore College

In 2005, Swarthmore College opened a new science building that for the first time brought biologists, chemists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and physicists together under one roof. The project was partly a result of renovation needs on the campus, but it also reflected what was then a budding new interest in designing buildings to encourage interaction among faculty members in different disciplines.

At the heart of the Swarthmore complex is Eldridge Commons, a glass-walled, high-ceilinged, see-and-be-seen destination with long tables and a coffee shop. “It’s one of the most successful spaces on campus,” says Rachel Merz, a professor of marine biology who was one of the faculty members involved in planning the building. Previously, she says, none of the college’s science buildings included social spaces, but now Eldridge “has a whole life of its own, starting in the early morning when there’s a coffee klatch of faculty members chatting and going through the arc of the day.”

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“It’s not just scientists,” she says. “A lot of people from the social sciences and even the humanities come and have their coffee there. Even after the snack bar closes, it’s a place for students to hang out.” Eldridge has been so popular as a communal work space that Swarthmore added more tables, and professors of some first-year science courses even hold office hours there, on the theory that students who might be reluctant to seek them out in their offices will feel more comfortable joining classmates at a table.

Since the trend toward interdisciplinary buildings began spreading across campuses 15 years or so ago, architects and university administrators have put up a wide range of buildings designed to give scholars with divergent interests reasons to talk with one another. Many of the first interdisciplinary projects were intended to bring scientists from different fields together to share ideas and expertise in fast-developing areas like neuroscience, but more recently colleges have broadened the interdisciplinary approach to include the humanities and even the arts.

Still, many academic buildings go back to the 19th and 20th centuries, long predating the idea of using design to encourage interaction. And even institutions that have embraced the idea of interdisciplinary structures are in most cases still dominated by buildings with limited flexibility — to say nothing of faculty members cautious about change of any sort. So think of interdisciplinary buildings as a kind of slow-motion trend that is working its way across even the biggest campuses one construction project at a time.

Stanford University’s 2003 Clark Center was among the earliest high-profile interdisciplinary buildings. Conceived as a biosciences facility “in which social encounters and impromptu conversations are regarded as integral to scientific endeavor,” as Stanford describes it, the Clark Center brought medical experts together with scientists, engineers, and humanities professors. Rooms in the complex open onto exterior balconies rather than interior hallways. Lab benches and desks are mounted on wheels so they can be easily reconfigured as teams’ needs evolve. A cafe rounds out the offerings.

The Clark Center was such a success that Stanford has continued planning interdisciplinary buildings, including one that will house a Neurosciences Institute and an institute called ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health). And other institutions have followed suit — notably Arizona State University, which has five Interdisciplinary Science and Technology buildings open, a sixth under construction, and a seventh in the planning stages, according to Edmundo Soltero, the university architect.

Despite the popularity of interdisciplinary projects, Mr. Soltero says Arizona State’s experience hasn’t exactly paralleled Swarthmore’s, at least as far as social spaces go. “These atriums and lounge spaces end up being empty,” he says. “Coffee and snacks is not going to do it.” And because the zones meant for socializing are not dedicated to particular research projects, the federal government doesn’t allow those spaces to be included when the university calculates research-overhead costs that can be supported by federal grants. So now, he says, “we don’t build any single-purpose space,” although multipurpose spaces that are suitable for other uses, as well as for socializing, are permitted.

As for the earlier interdisciplinary buildings and their atriums and lounges, he says, some members of his staff look carefully at how spaces are used and do their best to reprogram those that are underutilized. “We have a lot of churn,” he says. “There’s always researchers coming in with a three-year grant, a two-year grant” who might be happy in an underused space after a little reconfiguring.

Grinnell College has had an interdisciplinary science center for several years now that “has worked very well in fostering some strong interdisciplinary programs,” such as in neuroscience and biological chemistry, says Michael Latham, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college. So Grinnell is planning a similar facility for its humanities and social-sciences departments. The complex will incorporate two existing buildings as well as 147,000 square feet of new construction, and will house 145 faculty offices and 39 classrooms.

Evan Krape, U. of Delaware

“Grinnell is becoming more and more committed to interdisciplinary learning,” Mr. Latham says. This is because “the really interesting problems” — climate change, food security, public health — “require that you integrate knowledge from across different fields.” The new building will be organized into five academic “neighborhoods” that will mix different departments. One, for instance, includes gender, women’s, and sexuality studies; history; English; and classics; another pairs political science and economics.

“Offices will be interspersed,” he says. “The people on either side of you will probably not be in your department. The purpose is to create intellectual collisions.” The building will also have a wing with offices reserved for interdisciplinary collaborations. “You could work on a project there for two or three years and then rotate back into the academic neighborhoods.”

In the works at Spelman College is a 100,000-square-foot interdisciplinary building. The president, Mary Schmidt Campbell, saw an opportunity not only to replace an obsolete fine-arts building but also to wrap a growing computer-science program into the project. The interdisciplinary innovation center is modeled, in part, on the Interactive Telecommunications Program, or ITP, in New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where Ms. Campbell was formerly dean.

“We’re really focused on making it the place where innovation, experimentation, and risk-taking can take place,” says Ms. Campbell. “The innovation lab will be the hub, and arrayed around it will be arts and computer science. The entire building will be designed to invite other disciplines to come in and participate.

“We’ve gone out of our way to make it clear that this is a new building for all of Spelman’s faculty and students.”

That said, Ms. Campbell notes that Spelman already has one tremendously successful interdisciplinary tradition: Fried Chicken Wednesdays in the dining hall. “It’s so crowded you have to sit wherever you can sit. It gets people out of their offices and forces them to meet people.” And no special building is required.

Lawrence Biemiller writes about a variety of usual and unusual higher-education topics. Reach him at lawrence.biemiller@chronicle.com.