‘A place for the unexpected, integrated into the city structure’: universities as agents of cosmopolitan urbanism

Abstract

The role of formal architecture and urbanism in representing and reinforcing hegemonic power structures, ideologies, and identities is well-established (King 1990, 2004, Rabinow 1996, Yeoh 2001, Mishra and Hodge 1991). Universities, as élite institutions tied to state agendas (Bender 1988/1998/2002), and as major landowners, urban developers and financially well-endowed clients for architecture, have historically been significant actors in these processes. This paper discusses the evolution of new forms of university spatial and architectural development which are framed by discourses around inclusive, diverse, and cosmopolitan urban identities and heritage, transcending nationhood. Introduction: from national identity to shared urban heritage Drawing on recent case study research focused on the UK, US, and Sweden (Melhuish 2015), this paper visualises universities as agents of cosmopolitan urbanism, materialised through spatial and architectural interventions, in counterpoint to historic narratives of national identity in which they have been embedded. Bender describes how 'the modern academic disciplines were born in alliance with the rising nation state not the city… for its first century the modern university and nation have been more closely tied than the university and the city' (Bender 1998: 24). However university institutional development in the postcolonial context has moved away from an identification with nation and nationalist agendas, embracing globalised identity on the one hand, coupled with urban and metropolitan identity on the other: 'A place for the unexpected, integrated into the city structure', as the University of Gothenburg describes its new Project Näckrosen campus development: where 'people from different places and with different backgrounds will meet and work together..' 1. In another example, the UCL 2034 vision embodies this shift with its re-branding of UCL as 'London's Global University', jumping from the urban to the global with no reference to the nation in between. New York's major universities, such as Columbia and New York University, also promote a strong focus on the role of the university in the city's economic strategy: the 'NYU in NYC' (NYU Framework 2031) brand sets out to position the institution as a globally networked university shaping the evolution of the city as an 'ideas capital' and hub of the knowledge economy. Urban universities in the younger postcolonial nation states of the global south are also increasingly focusing on internationalisation, 'world-class' status, and contribution to global development on the one hand, while promoting place-based community outreach and engagement with a variety of urban stakeholders on the other, including direct participation in urban development initiatives (see for example University of Witwatersrand in Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2).

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