UI Places

Dear Reader

Hello! My name is Zach Sugano and I'm a student at the University of Idaho in Moscow. This project explores spatial rhetoric on campus as well as my story of how I became a student here. I've definitely noticed serious changes in my personality and priorities since I started attending the University and I feel that this can definitely be attributed to spatial rhetoric on campus. I will show you how some of the spaces on campus helped shape me. In many ways, I feel that my recent experiences have caused me to completely change in ways that I never expected. I hope that you will be able to understand what I experienced any why I feel the way I do.

To fully understand everything, I will give you a bit of my backstory. I had always been fairly good at school, but I had come to strongly resent school, my parents, and authority in general. There were multiple times when I considered dropping out of highschool and just giving up altogether, but my parents forced me through. I was glad to eventually graduate from high school, but once that was over I definitely didn't want to go to college. I had no motivation to pursue education any further and felt that I didn't belong in college despite my fairly good grades. I wanted to move out from my parents house as quickly as possible and bounced around for several years. I started out in San Diego, but I moved to San Jose. Then I moved back to San Diego for a bit before moving again to Houston. Each time, I thought I would be able to find something that made me happy and allow me to settle down. I pretty quickly got tired of each of those places and decided I needed a serious change of pace. Thus I decided to move to Moscow, Idaho.

I didn't start school here right away though. Before I started attending the University of Idaho, I was actually a member of the custodial staff for about four months. During my time as a custodian I got to know a lot of the campus, perhaps better than I wanted to sometimes. While I was working here, I actually began to feel like I might be able to fit into the college environment and succeed. None of this process was particularly easy given my historical hatred of schooling and education in general, but in time, I began to feel like college was something that I'd be able to do.

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Expository Essay

    The University of Idaho is intentionally designed to create a feeling of openness, inclusivity, and stability. There are very apparent design choices made throughout the campus in order to spread a variety of these messages. In addition to the campus as a whole, I will examine the Engineering Think Tank and its spatial rhetoric.

    Starting with the campus as a whole, there are a variety of design choices made in order to convey those messages. One of the most obvious design choices is the large amount of open space between the various buildings on campus. I have visited a variety of campuses are as spread out as the University of Idaho. There are some college campuses that simply consist of a single large building or several buildings very close together, but the University has a great deal of open space. This message creates a great feeling of freedom and personal expression. In addition to the open design, the vast majority of buildings, even newer ones, are designed using large amounts of brick and glass. These deliberate design choices help send all three of those messages that I mentioned earlier. The large amount of glass in many buildings helps create an open and expressive feeling. Glass also helps create a stronger feeling of community and inclusivity that is difficult to achieve otherwise. Lastly, brick gives off a message of strength and stability. There is a great deal of permanence, history, and tradition conveyed by the design of many buildings.

    One of the specific spaces that I'd like to highlight is the Engineering Think Tank. The Think Tank is located on the first floor of the Jansen Engineering Building. This is a space designed to allow engineering students to study, work, and collaborate effectively. There are many clear design choices that have made this space particularly effective. The Think Tank, like many other areas is designed to be an open space foster individual freedom and expression. In line with this idea, much of the walls are glass which lets in plenty of natural lighting and makes the space seem even larger than it normally is. Aside from purely architectural designs, the Think Tank is also furnished with purpose. All the chairs and tables are all on wheels so that they can be easily rearranged and grouped together as necessary. There are also a variety of tools such as power outlets, projectors, monitors, whiteboards, and more to help facilitate group collaboration.

    Ultimately, the campuses various spaces and buildings are intentionally designed to send these messages of freedom, inclusivity, and stability. While few are immediately aware of these messages, they can be felt in the way that the buildings are used and how students and staff interact with them on a day to day basis.

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Think Tank Photos

A variety of photos taken in the University of Idaho Think Tank.

College Schedule in Code

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Spotify Playlist

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