Ruhr-University Bochum
Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum
The Ruhr-Universität Bochum was the first university in the Ruhr area. Architect Helmut Hentrich won the urban planning competition announced internationally in 1962. The campus university is surrounded by greenery, accessible via a six-lane road and by train.
It is conceived as a "harbour in the sea of knowledge", its buildings symbolize ships. The roof of the audimax resembles a shell. The interdisciplinary concept of the university should also be reflected in its way of construction. An axis intersection divides the area into four rectangular fields of approximately equal size. The institute buildings of the individual disciplines are arranged inside these fields. At the intersection there is a square with the Audimax and the University Library.
Clear orientation, objective architectural language, functional spatial relationships and any renunciation of pathos are the qualities of the buildings. The chosen materials steel, concrete and glass conveyed the image of modernity.
