Very Old Campus Heritage Outlasts the University

Vietnam's first university was established here, at the Temple of Literature, in 1076, predating Harvard by a few hundred years. This image and many others can be found at this wonderful website.

Here is a Wikipedia article on it. Here is a New York Times travel guide item about it. Mor information can be found on this Answers.com page. As well, there are some nice images in this personal blog post.

Here is a little more about the curriculum and the students who - surprise, surprise - were often seen by outsiders as "troublemakers."

This is a case where the architecture outlived the university, however, as it shut down as an institution in 1779 after awarding 2,313 doctorate equivalent degrees.

New Book: Architecture of the Absurd: How 'Genius' Disfigured a Practical Art

Former Boston University president John Silber, as noted in this review in The Daily Free Press, "recently took his career in a new direction and wrote a book about some of the world's most renowned flaws, feats and failures in architecture." Purchase the book here.

"I used to say that there would never be an architecture of the absurd," he said. "With architecture, no one was going to pay for something absurd. . . . Over time I came to realize how wrong I was.

"The absurd occurs because there is a confusion between architecture and fine art, and architecture and sculpture," he continued. "You don't live in a sculpture."

Must-Read: Educational Facilities and the Impact of Technology, Expectations, and Competition

APPA: Leadership in Educational Facilities has published its 2007 Thought Leaders Series report titled "Educational Facilities and the Impact of Technology, Expectations, and Competition" (PDF) including the top ten critical facilities issues). We highly recommend that you download and read this report. You may also call 703.684.1446 to receive a complimentary printed copy, but we recommend being sustainable and downloading the digital file instead. (You can search inside it!) The top ten critical facilities issues, well-explained in the report, are:

• Improving Communications
• Addressing Sustainability
• Balancing and Articulating Expectations
• Integrating with IT
• Focusing on the Customer
• Aligning Facilities Planning with Institutional Goals
• Making Master Planning More Effective
• Implementing Total Cost of Ownership Strategies
• Managing Maintenance and Adaptive Reuse
• Instituting Metrics for Performance Measurement

Many thanks to the nine SCUP-member "thought leaders" who participated in the April 2007 APPA Thought Leaders Summit which was the source of this report: Christopher K. Ahoy, Iowa State University; James E. Alty Jr., Wake Forest University; Dave Button, University of Regina; Joseph C. Fisher, West Virginia University; John Hall, University of Texas at Arlington; Mernoy E. Harrison Jr., Arizona State University-Downtown Phoenix Campus; Jay Kahn, Keene State College; L. Carole Wharton, LC Wharton, LLC; and John O. White, University of California-Merced.