NTU embarks on campus transformation

SINGAPORE — The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) held its groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, as the university’s biggest physical transformation since 1991 gets underway.

First off is the building of a new Learning Hub, to be ready by early 2014, where tutorial rooms will be stacked into towers that cluster together around a shared circulation space and atrium. The design aims to encourage "connections", said the NTU.

"The seven—storey learning hub will house 55 new—generation classrooms of the future, designed to support new pedagogies by promoting more interactive small group teaching and active learning," said Professor Kam Chan Hin, NTU’s Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education).

As a 24—hour centre, students will be able to use it in the evenings for various formal or informal activities. The upper levels and rooftops have a variety of community and recreational spaces, such as a cafeteria, library and even a roof top garden.

A similar learning hub will be built at the northern part of the campus by 2016.

The learning hub is one of 14 new physical developments that are being built at the NTU within the next three years.

NTU president, Professor Bertil Andersson, said: "Our ambition is to build a modern campus that is at the leading edge of science and technology.

"Hardware and facilities are vital to generate and test—bed innovative ideas, as well as to spur collaboration among our faculty, students, industry and global partners. Once our new state—of—the—art buildings and facilities are up and running, they will deepen and widen the research and development capacity in NTU, and further promote collaboration both within and across disciplines."

Other developments include eight new residential halls, four new apartment blocks for the NTU’s faculty and postdoctoral researchers and a new academic building to encourage interactions across the disciplines.

The NTU said its Campus Master Plan projects will meet high standards for green design and sustainability.

— TODAY