[LINK] Flexible Architecture Research Center System

[Tom Worthington]

                 Link Institute Linkgram
                 For immediate release

Flexible Architecture Research Center System

Canberra, 1 August 2007: The Link Institute announced an advance in 
enhanced research and teaching for universities today with its 
Research Quotient Furniture for Flexible Architecture Research Center 
System (RQF-FARCS). The new system provides a building for 
researchers equipped with flexible walls which are adjusted based on 
the researchers productivity.

Professor Klerphell, head of the Link Institute said:

"Systems such as MIT iCampus have shown the value of flexible 
learning centers 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/07/mit-icampus-looks-usable-in-australia.html>. 
The Link Institute has taken this one step further with flexible 
architecture  for research. Our new building design literally changes 
it shape in response to the research undertaken.

The Australian Government have introduced the Research Quality 
Framework (RQF)  to better measure the output of Australian 
universities 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2006/12/australian-university-research.html>. 
At many institutions this is reflected in the promotions and pay of 
research staff. However this feedback mechanism is too slow for the 
dynamics of 21st century research. Also academic researchers are not 
necessarily motivated by money, finding the respect of their peers 
more rewarding.

The Flexible Architecture Research Center System  (FARCS) provides a 
more immediate and visible measure of the worth of each researcher. 
The system replaces fixed walls in university offices with a set of 
computer controlled motor operated partitions. Each evening the 
university electronic repository scans the online archive of academic 
journals published 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/qpublishing.shtml>, citation 
indexes, media reports and other evidence of academic output. This is 
combined with a teaching weighting score and research funding 
attracted by each staff measure to produce a productivity index.

During the night the system automatically moves the room partitions 
to adjust the size of each academic's office in proportion to their 
productivity. Sizes can range from a PHD "closet" to VC "suite".  The 
next morning each staff member can see how productive they have been 
as measured against their peers, by the size of their office. The 
system can also cater for PHD students, adjusting room sizes up from 
scholarship students to full fee paying size (with allowance for any 
patent rights signed over to the university).

Online universities with staff who work from home are catered for 
with virtual offices which adjust in size on the university's web 
site. Staff can also purchase additional floor space, per metre per 
day, using an auction system to adjust for demand."

Further advances in university office design underway. Flat screen 
displays, already used for teaching rooms, are now displacing 
bookshelves in offices. "Books take up valuable space and no one 
looks at them anymore anyway" Klerphell said. The "V-book" (TM) 
system provides a realistic representation of an academic bookshelf, 
while freeing up 200mm of space. Staff sharing offices can take their 
virtual bookshelf with them on a USB flash drive or using a web address.

Klerphell said: "Some have criticized numerical measure of academic 
output as just being about money. In this way we can show that there 
is more than money that academics respect: there is also floorspace".

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;-)



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                http://www.tomw.net.au/
Visiting Fellow, ANU      Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml