Design for COVID-19: Rethinking the University Campus

Graduate Design Studio

In 2017, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign revised and updated its master planning documents, continuing the essential themes and goals of master plans from the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2020, the presence of COVID-19 in the United States forced a re-evaluation of how university spaces are used and how higher education may achieve its previous efficacy while protecting public health. This graduate studio, a collaboration between Architecture and Landscape Architecture, reimagines the Urbana-Champaign campus in an era of social distancing. From zoning to public space design to residential architecture, we offer speculative, progressive proposals that synthesize the educational and social needs of the university ecosystem with the public safety demands of a global pandemic.

For more information, see the course website. Student work from this course was published in 2022 in The Plan Journal.