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November 29, 2007, 11:10 AM ET
How Is the 'MIT of Canada' Like Disneyland?
The library at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, designed by Diamond + Schmitt Architects (Photo by Aaron Tait)
The current issue of Canadian Architect features a story about the design of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, one of Canada’s newest institutions.
The campus, which was designed by the Toronto firm Diamond + Schmitt Architects, incorporates a number of green features, including green roofs, use of local materials, preservation of natural landscape, and designs that make use of natural light. The science building will feature a “biofilter wall,” with air-cleaning plants crawling up a four-story structure inside the building. It’s a feature already in use at the University of Guelph. The campus also has one of the largest geothermal systems in North America, beneath the quadrangle, with more than 300 holes, each about 700 feet deep.
The university’s garbage is shuttled out through an underground tunnel — a point of interest and criticism in the article. With garbage hidden like that, people at the university are not forced to confront the spectacle of their own waste, says the reporter, Jacob Allderdice. It’s like Disneyland in its sanitized design, he says. (Mr. Allderdice also seems a bit uneasy with the ubiquitous security cameras on campus.)
Disneyland was actually a model for the campus design in other ways. “A Disneyland principle we used is in the auditoriums, where you can enter at the back and exit at the front,” says the architect Don Schmitt. “It’s just the issue of 250 students leaving while another 250 try and get in. It’s something I learned with my kids at Disneyland: You arrive in the theater and you exit in a different direction because there’s another crowd waiting to come in.”
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