The University of Idaho has an issue that needs to be addressed in its campus architecture. The campus has confused the idea of vernacular architecture and the use of similar materials to the point of creating buildings that blend rather than stand out alone.
The UI campus can be split into two separate pieces. The first is the old campus, which contains buildings such as the Administration Building and the Lionel Hampton School of Music, Art and Architecture South. The second part of campus is newer and comprised of buildings like the Integrated Research and Innovation Center.
The issue with this separation of campus is that the new buildings try to imitate the old buildings but don’t do a good job of it. Most of the new buildings get confused about the difference between vernacular architecture and materiality. The older buildings were not just made with the main material of bricks. They all followed the same style of architecture called collegiate Gothic.
The newer buildings on campus ditched the style of collegiate Gothic and instead opted to just follow the material and design everything using brick as the main material.
The biggest example of this issue comes from the IRIC. The IRIC’s main structural material can easily be seen as brick, with the rest of it being a glass wall covered by a rain screen colored to look like brick. With this combination of materials and colors, the IRIC does not stand out much except in the way that it looks like a giant brick was placed on the academic mall.
This is an issue that UI has struggled with for a long time. Even though we have a prestigious architecture school on campus, most of our newer buildings lack clever design qualities. A lot of the buildings in the academic mall, which should highlight some of our best architecture, end up looking like giant blocks made of brick.
If the newer UI campus buildings wanted to try and fit in, they should not just be made of the same material; they should be made to look like the original buildings as well. However, campuses should not follow vernacular architecture in the first place.
Campuses should change with the times by allowing newer and more innovative architects to have a chance to express themselves and improve the campus. Studying the existing vernacular architecture is important in the design process, but unless it can be perfectly replicated, the architect should only use it as a reference point.
UI should consider reaching out to alumni from its College of Art and Architecture to help design newer campus buildings. Who else would know what this campus feels like or what the students want better than someone who went to school here?
The next wave of UI buildings should turn away from brick use and encourage the use of newer materials that are more sustainable to help push the campus’s design into the next generation.
Connor Anderson can be reached at [email protected]