Something I was curious about before this trip was how a Chilean university compared to an American one. After visiting San Joaquim, I was shocked at how different it was from Ohio State. There was a large variety of buildings, differing in scale, shape, color and materiality. This is a direct contrast from the many similar buildings on Ohio State’s campus that follow the brick standard. Both campuses are similar in that they have prominent central features that dictate the organization of the site. The main quad at San Joaquim is a wide, paved path that serves as a linear axis for all the buildings to line up along. Ohio State differs in that the central feature is the Oval, a large landscape that divides the campus into two parts: North and South. In terms of actual campus size and layout, San Joaquim’s campus is much smaller that that of Ohio State and splits up into multiple parts, with the architecture school being located in an entirely different location than the main campus. Ohio State differs in that it is one continuous campus but can also relate to the organization of the main campus of San Joaquim in the density of academic buildings seen on their campus and also on North campus.
Innovation Center at San Joaquim
Torres Siamesas at San Joaquim
Building with interesting window features at San Joaquim
Round copper museum on San Joaquim’s campus
Diagram comparing organization of San Joaquim and Ohio State
At San Joaquim, the main axis was mostly a stone path with some grass areas off to the side. At OSU, the oval is very grassy with some stone paths. I was curious about which one you felt facilitated each campus’s organization better. I feel that the axis at Gabriela Mistral was very successful at organizing the campus. As a catholic college, the Church is the most important figure as shown with the axis that leads straight to it from the road. The campus also has many of its important buildings lining this axis. At OSU I think it was definitely more difficult to organize the campus because of the size. Thompson Library is also located centrally on the axis which shows the importance of academics. But, there are many more important buildings that are not organized around the oval. Although both are successful, I think San Joaquim is more successful.
Also, meant San Joaquim not Gabriela Mistral
I agree with you that the campus in Chile is quite different compare to Ohio state and Ohio state. San Joaquim’s campus is much more diverse and contains architecture of many different styles. The organizational system of both campuses are different, but the way the building wraps around the campus is somewhat similar. However, many of the campuses, including San Joaquim has been around for along time and are not afraid of challenging the architecture of the time and develop a variety of different styles. None the less, we have done that a few times ok our own campus as well. The first two to come to mind are Knowlton Knowlton Hall and Scott Lab. We all know Knowlton‘s exterior is marble and Scott Lab is aluminum. These building creates such a a unique facade around the campus as people walk from their car to central campus. I think Ohio state should take more risk and start opening up to using different materials and accepting more styles of architecture around campus to make it more unique. What do we have to lose? Many establishments before my generation already made decisions to demolish important historical buildings like the Armory and the original University Hall.