This option studio focuses on the capacity of large universities to direct the growth and transformation of consolidated territories in big cities. It takes the example of Harvard and its various campuses to investigate their potential for creating one or several innovative centers that are well connected to their natural territory and provide new positive input for regional economy in a sustainable environment. This is the second edition of the studio and will focus on the edges of different Harvard campuses.

The university is perceived as a place of excellence and often presented as a utopian project capable of developing a set of values that is considered higher than usual. Within it, the campuses and colleges are vehicles for expressing utopian social visions. But this place has gradually evolved with the transmission of critical knowledge and the development of research and is becoming one of the most dynamic nodes in the knowledge society. In this sense, with the digital revolution and access to information, we see the transformation of forms of teaching and production of knowledge, which are modifying the organization of university campuses, their relationship with the most immediate urban centers, and the infrastructures of communication and mobility at various scales, as well as the integration of issues of environmental sustainability and the new engagement with the knowledge society.

We must understand how research using urban design methods can help to make this evolution more harmonious and sustainable and prepare the development of the most innovative induced activities.

The campuses and yards of Harvard University, located on both embankments of the Charles River in Cambridge and Allston, will serve as a framework for reflection. Located within the metropolitan system of Boston with its constellation of powerful universities such as MIT, Boston University, and others, our context parallels that of other highly dynamic campuses in the USA (Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, etc.) and on other continents. The studio will virtually tour these different institutions, allowing us to decipher the evolution of academic fields and corporate campuses.