Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 85 (2013) 308 – 317 1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies (cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.361 AcE-Bs 2013 Hanoi ASEAN Conference on Environment-Behaviour Studies Hanoi Architectural University, Hanoi, Vietnam, 19-22 March 2013 "Cultural Sustainability in the Built and Natural Environment" Open Space as Meaningful Place for Students in ITB Campus Himasari Hanan ITB, Ganesha 10 Bandung 40132, Indonesia Abstract This paper analyzes the usage of various open spaces in ITB campus, and identifies essential features that constitute the space as meaningful to students. The result indicates open spaces that are located along the main axis of ITB campus have distinctive meanings to students, and who mostly occupied them are the first-common-year students. Spatial configuration to the axis creates distinctiveness and sense of place to students. Greenery and courtyards around classrooms play also significant role in stimulating outdoor activities and informal social gathering between classes. Meaningful open spaces vary from courtyards, well-defined pedestrian ways, building corridor and veranda. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Centre for Environment- Behaviour Studies (cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. Keywords: Campus; open space; meaningful place; ITB 1. Introduction Campus physical environment is an essential feature that influence students attraction to a higher institution. Some campuses organize the design based on a big idea of higher education environment, and some others focus on the campus landscape or architecture of the buildings. Anyhow, most campus in Indonesia has been designed on the western model with little understanding that its success is largely based on the physical surrounding and local setting that offer many possibilities for student’s responses and behaviour. The campus, as a behaviour setting, composed of human or social aspect of the setting and the nonhuman component or physical aspect. Students interact each other within a physical environment such as pedestrian ways, parking lots, indoor and outdoor activities areas, and buildings that vary in size, ________ * Corresponding author. Tel.: +62 22 250 4962; fax: +62 22 253 0705. E-mail address: hanan@ar.itb.ac.id. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies (cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia ScienceDirect