About Aarhus University

University of Aarhus

Aarhus Universitet del af kulturkanonUNIVERSITY OF AARHUS, Århus 1931 ?
Kay Fisker, C F Møller, P Stegmann, C Th Sørensen

Erected in the 1930s, the University of Aarhus hints at brighter times for Århus and Denmark. The architecture is modern, and immediately anti-monumental, as an organic interpretation of the open campus in the centre of the city. It also provides distinctive and solid evidence of how a major structure in an urban context can develop with beauty and with soul over a period of more than 70 years.
The university buildings are set around a valley, rhythmically positioned, correctly distanced, in perfect harmony with the landscape, and such that the valley itself remains virginal. All wings are built in one material only ? yellow bricks for the facings, roofs and paving ? which makes the building structures stand out as uniform, simplistic and prismatic with clean saddle roofs without overhang. At the top, the main building with the main hall screens off the area from the Ringgaden circular road, boasting a more expressive idiom in contrast to the matter-of-fact character of the individual faculty buildings.
The University of Aarhus is a tribute to tile as a building material. The brick tiles knit the buildings closely together in harmony with the surrounding landscape, creating a subdued monumentality with a regional Danish character, most clearly evidenced by the Main Hall building with its gable end throning over the valley. Here, amphitheatrical terracing draws the landscape together, in contrast to the Main Hall?s brick-tiled yard enclosure from where the unifying thought of the entire university reveals itself. This unique integration of the landscape and the buildings is strengthened further by the characterful clumps of oak trees in the park, accentuating the topography and enhancing the landscape. In the fullness of time a grand landscape, almost pastoral in appearance, has emerged ? both classical and regional at the same time.

Source: English translation from the ?Canon of Danish Art and Culture?/The Danish Ministry of Culture