The Place of Sophia

Urban Planning Reflections on the Integration of City and University

Abstract

The arrival of Sophia Institute in Loppiano, near Florence, is a significant challenge. Loppiano is neither town nor country, but a “splash of green hills” within a wider urbanized territory. It is neither an unchanging village nor community of travellers; rather it is a melting-pot of people who share values, daily practices, hopes. It contains places that can be recognized as offering rich educational opportunities, not only in the sense of spaces where learning can take place but as spaces that themselves teach. Here it is possible to experience the pattern of a University that is open, integrated with the outside world, drawing inspiration from many centres, available for use by everyone, a university integrated with the landscape where it is situated and at the same time able to pursue to other courses of action and forms of involvement. Consequently, this article looks at three main issues. First, the contextual nature of knowledge: knowledge is never abstract and disincarnate but it is always located in a setting. It is developed where people meet in a shared space and engage in shared activities. Second, knowledge needs buildings that enable it to develop, buildings that are themselves at the origin of transformations within the educational context. Finally, if the educational content changes, there must be a change in the spaces that house it.