H&D proposes repurposing space creatively

By Jieya Wen     11/18/14 4:04pm

New, creative design spaces may come to residential colleges in the coming years, according to David McDonald, senior business director of  Housing and Dining. H&D is initiating the endeavor in collaboration with Rice Education of the Future. The spaces will be multi-disciplinary and their design open to student input.

“This is all very new, very student driven and very organic,” McDonald said. “The space we envision in the college is a [multi-disciplinary] collaboration. So we’ve asked the colleges to define what a creative space [looks like] in their college, recognizing the fact that 11 colleges have very unique identities. H&D will help support and help them innovate the design and keep them on the right path of what the ultimate design will look like.”

Student Association Executive Vice President Trent Navran said the REF task force is communicating with college leadership about this initiative, but the actual implementation of the creative space depends on the individual colleges themselves.

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“The idea is students have to, at each of their colleges, come up with their idea of what creativity looks like,” Navran, a McMurtry College senior, said. “It’s a lot more about starting a conversation and getting the residential college to be facilitators for a college wide conversation ... There is a huge burden on residential college presidents to communicate this effectively.”

McMurtry Senator Madhuri Venkateswar said her college has already begun considering possibilities for the space.

“This has been pitched at McMurtry and at Duncan [College]...and McMurtry specifically has created an innovation space committee composed of architects and engineers to create this innovation space,” Venkateswar, a sophomore, said. “Basically, they are first defining what innovation is.”

Susann Glenn, manager of Communications for Rice Facilities Engineering and Planning, said H&D aims to support the students’ design of the creative space in colleges and the SA is responsible for facilitating the conversation with the students. 

“We are here to support the efforts and help find the space and ensure whatever [is] proposed is reasonable,” Glenn said. “We are not facilitating this conversation. It’s a student-driven initiative.”

Currently, several colleges, including Sid Richardson College, Duncan College and Jones College, have started creating committees on creative design space. 

“Some colleges are talking about combining efforts together,” Glenn said. “Maybe some shared space somewhere can benefit both colleges, and then it also encourages interactions between colleges and collaborations between colleges.”

McDonald said creative design space will enrich students’ residential college experience.

“You all spend a lot of time in your colleges,” McDonald said. “If [the creative design space] is down on the first floor, it’s more likely that you go down there and play in the space.”

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