BAGUIO CITY – With the growth of Baguio City as a learning hub of the North, the University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio continues to develop itself as a central knowledge district through its approved Masterplan Development Plan which highlights environmental preservation, interaction, and accessibility.
UP Baguio Vice Chancellor for Administration Dr. Jessica Cariño explained that one of the components of the plan is maximizing limited space and minimizing the impact of infrastructure development on the environment. This involves coming up with structures that maximize space, daylight and ventilation.
Some buildings which have already been completed are the Science Research Center, the Sabkil Montane Research Field Station, the Museo Kordilyera, the recently inaugurated Teatro Amianan, and the rainwater harvesting and recovery system.
Part of the UP Baguio Green Campus plan is allowing interaction and accessibility for academic discussions and knowledge sharing among the faculty, students, and the community.
Cariño shared plans of converting spaces between buildings into parks and benches which can serve as gathering and learning areas. There are also proposals for enhancing the connectivity and accessibility between the university and the city through designating pedestrians, providing landscape connections, allowing bike access, coming up with ramps for persons with disabilities, and building a connecting bridge between the academic zone and the residential area.
For 2018, Cariño disclosed that priority projects include the creation of open air classrooms and viewing platforms, construction of pedestrian boardwalks in forested areas, rehabilitation of storage, drainage and sewerage systems, and establishment of outdoor elevators to connect higher and lower elevated areas in the campus.
UP Baguio has already received the P100 million allotted in the General Appropriations Act and is currently working on the pre-design phase of projects lined up for this year. /(PIA CAR)
