Universities and other institutions often consist of a diverse collection of buildings from different eras and architectural backgrounds. These can sometimes be interdigitated with other buildings that happen to be there for historical reasons, but which aren’t anything to do with the urban campus in question. Visitors were always stopping me on the street in Cambridge, standing between shops, government offices and colleges, and asking “Where’s the University?”
The situation is even more daunting for new students who are actually expected to find their way about without stumbling into banks whilst in search of biochemistry. This is a bigger issue when two unrelated campuses abut one another.
Today’s invention is a simple way to group the real estate belonging to such an institution visually. It involves equipping each building with a discreet collection of small, energy efficient lights -in a single appropriate colour. These could be attached (removably) at a uniform height above ground -or below the rooflines. They might be illuminated in waves across the university -unifying even the most eclectic collection of institutional outstations.
