Towards an innovative community: Rethinking the urban configuration of the university campus within new cities

Abstract

Within the context of Knowledge-Based Economy, many cities around the globe are working on magnetizing the global talents of professionals, students, academic staff and researchers for joining their local markets. Numerous studies revealed that university campuses could play a substantial role in boosting the innovation within communities and reinforcing the mission of developing human resources aligned with fostering competitive technological advantages. In new cities, societies tend to maximize their competitive benefits to attract more talents and investment. Thus, reconstructing the relationship between campus and the new city is becoming more substantial for the survival and foolishness of these new communities. Therefore, this study is organized based on two premises, the first straightforward is, hypothesizing that both, urban and spatial characteristics and configurations of university campus may increase or decrease the possibilities of innovation to take place within the city. The second attribute is more holistic, assuming that there is a kind of correlation between community or campus-scale planning, and space-scale setting in fostering interaction and thriving innovation. Accordingly, the research is a trial to articulate the design framework which may control the efficiency of this relationship to promote innovation within a broad ecosystem. In this chapter, the authors used qualitative research tools to consolidate the final findings and planning consideration of new innovative communities by deploying a target group questionnaire and analyzing a distinctive case study of MIT University Campus, USA.