Yearly,the academic oval holds many events and activities including the lantern parade, rallies and races. It is surrounded with lushes of acacia trees and houses some other species of trees which make it alive. The academic oval, for me, is a natural scenery with the touch of art.

 

      Walking around the academic oval, we can notice that the buildings were not accidentally placed. The Administrative Building which houses both the president and the chancellor is very similar to the Gonzales Hall (Main Library) structure, Palma Hall is similar to Melchor Hall and Benitez Hall is similar to Malcolm. Architecture speaking, they call this bilateral symmetry. In his blog, John Buzon cited that bilateral symmetry is commonly used for urban scale planning to aid people navigate with the space. People will have easier time to adjust and walk around in a space with bilateral symmetry because they would have less space to memorize.

 

      How the academic oval was planned is one thing, the other thing is that how the buildings are chosen. I have researched for some explanations or theories about this but I did not find any, so I made my own explanation about them. First of all is the structure of the Admin Building and the Main Library. Looking at these buildings, we can describe that they look tall and high because of the pillars. The Admin Building has a pillars supporting the bridge that connects the chancellor and the president's office. I heard rumors that the bridge signifies the unity of the administrators of the school. The pillars which are tall and vertical signifies power to emphasize the role of the building in the whole school. The Main Lib also has its own pillars but don't connect any bridge and actually the pillars are outside the building. If I were to interpret it, I think the power lies outside where the majority are. The Main Library that houses thousands of books do not really matter unless the people outside enters it and discover what's inside it.

 

    The Palma Hall that houses CSSP (College of Social Sciences and Philosophy) students and Melchor Hall that houses engineering students are the other buildings that look the same. The buildings have very wide entrances with a large staircase. I think the planners created them so wide and large because they expect these buildings to house a large portion of students from the school. These buildings are also divided into two portions, the east wing and the left wing. These buildings look so intimidating and high given the fact that they each have staircases in their entrance. It seems to me that these buildings are training the students to work hard for what they aim for and to move not just forward but also upward.

 

    The Malcolm Hall, also known as the Law Building, and the Benitez Hall (Education building) are the last buildings that look similar that are around the academic oval. These buildings always give me a warm and welcoming feeling. These buildings, unlike the first four halls, do not have staircases at the entrance. Instead, they have semi-circular inclined ramp which are suitable for students and teacher who have their own car. But I think that is not the main reason. For me, these last two building were created to exude the idea of equality. They dismissed the idea of stairs that can be attributed to hierarchical system. Instead, they created a smooth path so that people will not be intimidated by their looks. This stairless-in-the-entrance characteristic of these building also emphasize their role in the school as to be as equal and as accessible (because people with disabilities could easily manoeuvre their wheelchair with a ramp relative to the stairs.

 

    As I have said, these buildings were placed and created with a purpose and not by accident. It is very amazing how people can merge utility and art. Urban planners need to make the place convenient and organized not to mention they have to think about its aesthetic implication too. The academic oval is one example for this. It was well planned of and just thinking about it, I cannot feel anything but being amazed and being impressed. I hope people would appreciate and get astounded by it too.

 

 

References:

http://artinup.wordpress.com/mirror-image/