The 1960s and the 1970s marked a generational shift in architectural discourse at a time when the revolts inside universities condemned the academic institution as a major force behind the perpetuation of a controlling society. Focusing on the crisis and reform of higher education in Italy, The University as a Settlement Principle investigates how university design became a lens for architects to interpret a complex historical moment that was marked by the construction of an unprecedented number of new campuses worldwide. Implicitly drawing parallels with the contemporary condition of the university under a regime of knowledge commodification, it reviews the vision proposed by architects such as Vittorio Gregotti, Giuseppe Samona, Archizoom, Giancarlo De Carlo, and Guido Canella, among others, to challenge the university as a bureaucratic and self-contained entity, and defend, instead, the role of higher education as an agent for restructuring vast territories. Through their projects, the book discusses a most fertile and heroic moment of Italian architectural discourse and argues for a reconsideration of architecture's obligation to question the status quo. This work will be of interest to postgraduate researchers and academics in architectural theory and history, campus design, planning theory, and history.

HEC Paris is a leading European school of advanced business studies with a global community of students from Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2012, HEC Paris's campus near Versailles was redesigned by renowned architects Martin Duplantier and David Chipperfield to reflect the school's global character and its focus on open communication and exchange. HEC Campus: Evolution of a Model documents the transformation in close detail and with one hundred illustrations, including twenty newly commissioned photographs by award-winning French photographer Cyrille Weiner. After a brief history of HEC Paris since its foundation in 1881, the book takes readers through the planning and construction of its modern buildings throughout the 1960s by Ren Coulons, and the careful restoration of many of these buildings by Duplantier and Chipperfield. The architects also conceived an entirely new building and a surrounding park, which has become a key element of campus social life. Through essays and an interview with Martin Duplantier, the book also explores the interplay of preservation and renovation and demonstrates how this exemplary contemporary redesign can be taken as a model for this sort of planning.