Ruhr-Universität Bochum

The Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) has 43,000 students and is one of the five largest universities in Germany. It was the first new university to be established in the Federal Republic and lies outside the city. The design by HPP won the architectural competition in 1962. The 13 main buildings are grouped in four complexes of three or four high-rises around a forum.
The university has been undergoing extensive renovation since 2006. Two buildings were demolished and replaced in 2015. The series of buildings containing the humanities faculty will be joined by a new building “G D” for the faculties of law, economics and sociology. The letter “G” stands for Geisteswissenschaften (humanities), while “D” signifies the position of the new building as the fourth in the quadrant. The new building continues the east-west main axis and links with the others in a U-shaped arrangement, without competing with the existing series of high-rises. The top three departmental floors appear to float, set apart by a glazed recess on a massive concrete plinth. Students and university staff reach the building by foot over the connecting green space in the heart of the campus. The seven storeys can accommodate up to 4,700 people. The auditorium and library are in the plinth. In the north is the main entrance and foyer, in the south, with a view into the Lottental valley, is the library entrance and the large reading room. The upper three storeys contain the offices and seminar rooms of the various faculties.
North of the building is a green space with areas for events and for students to gather informally on a series of stepped levels.