DIALOGUES WITH GENSLER

Duke University’s Global Ambitions

BY MICHAEL WELTON

Nora Bynum, managing director, Why is Duke heading overseas? Nora Bynum: The most important 21st-century research Duke Kunshan University (DKU), and universities will be global rather than simply national. With DKU, Duke is making an early and substantial move to stay Scott Selig and Paul Manning, Duke’s competitive, collaborating with our Chinese partners in a way associate vice president, real estate, that many of our peer institutions have not yet done. and director of project management, Scott Selig: DKU also brings the Duke experience to people who can’t afford the time to come to Durham. respectively, are part of the core team for DKU’s new campus near Suzhou, How does that experience translate? NB: We plan to start with graduate programs and undergraduate west of Shanghai. This project is an non-degree programs, so we’re certainly not aiming at the outset to replicate the experience of a Duke undergraduate who goes important step into a global future for here for four years. One thing that is striking about our home Duke, a leading US research university, campus is how it fits into its forest setting. We have the Duke Chapel, we have the terrestrial quadrangle, and everything has and its Chinese partners. been laid out very carefully. Even the newer buildings are built to be harmonious with the older design. I think that it’s this sense of harmony, balance, and proportion that’s particularly present This article appeared originally in Dialogue 21. ©2012. on the Kunshan campus. The new buildings also integrate many Please see the current issue at www.gensler.com/publications. design elements drawn from Jiangsu province.

Paul Manning: DKU is set in a river delta, not a forest, but we expect that both campuses will be pedestrian- and bike-friendly, and comprised of memorable places. Those qualities translate. DKU has a modern feel. There are no Gothic memories, but it incorporates traditional Chinese features like upturned roof edges and screens.

SS: DKU is not so much about bringing Duke University to China as it is about bringing the Duke way of learning to China— adapting it to another culture. The Duke way means personal learning, one to one. | 0 DIALOGUES WITH GENSLER

Nora Bynum Scott Selig Paul Manning

KEY FACTS AND INSIGHTS

1: DKU is less about bringing Duke 2: DKU is modern and sustainable. 3: At full development, as to China than it is about bringing It’s also sensitive to context and currently planned, 5,000 Chinese the Duke way of learning, tradition, so its students will and international students will adapted to the country’s culture. know where they are. attend DKU every year.

PM: Not all learning takes place in the classroom. DKU SS: DKU will be paired educationally with Duke, but will become recognizes this. There’s communal space within the buildings and its own special place. outside them—in the terraces and plazas. In fact, we’ve put the NB: Like all universities in China, DKU will be licensed and planters on rails in some of these outdoor settings, so we can supervised by the Ministry of Education. easily rescale them to work for a smaller event for 60 people or a much bigger one that draws 250 people. SS: In short, they will build it and we will come. The local government is making a major investment in its development. Does a “blank slate” lead to innovation? NB: When we brought Duke Medical School to the National PM: Having a world-class university benefits Kunshan, which University of Singapore, we decided at the outset that teaching sees R&D and higher education as its way forward as the would reflect a team-based learning model. The results have Shanghai region shifts to a more post-industrial economy. been very positive, and we’ve been able to draw lessons for pedagogy that are applicable at home. We anticipate DKU will Will Duke develop other new campuses? have similar opportunities. NB: Our global strategy is still evolving. We view Duke as having faculty, students, and activities all over the globe. That doesn’t SS: In terms of the physical setting, we were able to design a necessarily mean that we’ll have a physical campus like DKU in green campus from the start, considering solar energy, storm every location. In India, for example, where our work is much water bioremediation, and resource-efficient buildings. more dispersed geographically, we may choose to operate without an actual physical center. We don’t need a brick-and- PM: We’ve been able to take more account of the larger mortar presence. environment—prevailing winds and how the sun moves in each season. The right orientation and overhangs let us have very open buildings with lots of daylight, without the glare and heat gain of Michael Welton, who conducted the interview, writes for the New York Times, direct sunlight hitting those glass walls. the Washington Post, and other publications.

How will DKU relate to Duke in the US? NB: DKU is a separate legal entity from Duke, but the relationship is very close. Duke has three of the seven seats on the board and is determining the faculty and curriculum. | 0