18. 1965-1970 | Scale Model of the Construction of the Campus

 Architektengroep 69, Scale model of the VU Campus, around 1970.

Between 1955 and 1995, VU Amsterdam gradually moved from the city centre and Oud-Zuid areas to the Buitenveldert campus. The dynamic between lack of money and lack of space made for constant tension governing the campus design. The heritage collection holds various scale models, and photos of lost scale models, which bear silent witness to the developments. Architecture historian Freek Schmidt evaluates the history of the campus.

In 1953, VU Amsterdam purchased a parcel of land in the then still empty Buitenveldert area. At first it was intended for the Academic Hospital, but later also for faculties and departments. The student population continued to grow: from 2,000 in 1953 to 10,000 in 1973, when the current Main Building was officially opened. Today, student numbers have reached almost 30,000. Such growth, in addition to changing ambitions, has resulted in constant changes to the campus.

This scale model made for Architektengroep 69 represents ‘all the buildings’ of VU Amsterdam on a scale of 1:1,000. In the foreground at the left, the playing fields are were they have been ever since. To the right is the extension of the outpatient clinic and behind it the VU hospital. The large rectangular site beyond the playing fields is filled by the Main Building, including the Aula, and in the background the complete science building, with the adjoining medical faculty to the right. If you study the scale model carefully and compare it with how the campus actually looks now, a number of things stand out. Some buildings have disappeared, others have taken their place. The most noticeable is the gamma building, which was never constructed. From 1966 until 2001, this was the site of the Provisorium I. The Transitorium constructed in 1976 still stands today.

Looking at the general outline of the campus, we see that campus design in the first forty years was fixated on constructing sturdy buildings made up of large-scale geometric volumes, while the public space in between was redesigned every so often, from pedestrian walkways with small green spaces to parking lots. Attempts were made not very long ago to turn this ‘spare zone’ into the heart of the campus, even though the demand for more teaching facilities again forced the construction of somewhat incongruous temporary buildings that did not really contribute to the overall feel.

The last two decades have seen the vanished Provisorium I being replaced by buildings that are somewhat different in their architectural form from those of previous generations. This is certainly true for the new university building, in front of which the De Boelelaan now makes an extra turn and which boasts an enormous inner atrium, or covered open area, something that the first-generation buildings had totally refused to sacrifice any interior space to. An even greater deviation in terms of its architecture is the ‘bell pepper’ – the building without an entrance is what I like to call it – which emphatically differentiates itself from the plain rectilinear structure and solid appearance of its predecessors.

The campus will be changing again in the near future, and have to seek a good balance between the construction of new buildings and the sustainable management of existing ones. The issue of heritage will also play an important role. Although it is clear that not everyone will be able to see the charm of the existing campus architecture, it represents more than half a century of academic endeavour, with all the ambitions, dreams and experiences that accompany it, and which bestows considerable cultural historical value on the campus in its current shape.

Freek Schmidt is Professor of History of Architecture and the Living Environment at the Faculty of Humanities.

 The VU Campus under construction, with a part of the science building that was completed in 1964.

 The General Expansion Plan of Amsterdam [Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan van Amsterdam or AUP], 1934; design by urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren, head of the Urban Development Section of the Public Works Department. The planned city districts are indicated in orange. In the ‘garden city’ of Buitenveldert to the south, the new VU campus was to be built from the 1950s.