PROPERTY VU MAIN BUILDING TURNS 50:

VU Amsterdam is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Main Building, an icon in Zuidas and Buitenveldert in Amsterdam-Zuid. On 12 April, the university hosted a symposium about the emblematic building, exactly fifty years after its official opening by then Queen Juliana. Additional events are planned throughout the year to mark this five-decade anniversary.

“VU Amsterdam goes back to 1880. The university was established in a canal house at Keizersgracht 162 in 1884, and up until 1966 that was its main building”, recounts university historian Ab Flipse.

As VU grew, it steadily acquired more properties, mainly in Amsterdam-Zuid. Ab: “After the Second World War the university wanted to create its own campus, which was quite a pioneering idea at the time. Plans for a campus took shape between 1945 and 1952, but the question was where to build it. This site came into the picture in 1952. Buitenveldert didn’t exist yet and this spot was chosen in consultation with the city, the idea being that a campus university should be in a quiet environment.”

VU had also set up a medical faculty and work commenced on building an academic medical centre first. “Apart from that, the university needed an administrative centre, and that’s where the idea for the Main Building arose. The actual plan for the building was commissioned in 1960”, Ab continues. “Two designs were made, of which the architect Chris Nielsen’s was ultimately chosen. His plan for a 16-storey building left more scope for green spaces and future growth. The building was to house the university administration, humanities departments and library, all of which are still there. It’s a striking building that projects a strong image.’’

On 12 April 1973, Queen Juliana officially opened the Main Building with Amsterdam mayor Ivo Samkalden. “The architectural design was inspired by the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum and is part of the Brutalism style”, the historian explains, and in 1973 it was one of the capital’s tallest structures. In that year the VU Main Building was finished, but the rest of the campus was not. “The concept of a campus being a space within the urban fabric and a community created for and by the