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Az európai egyetemek története - The History of European Universities Kalmár Miklós

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of architectural eclecticism. Viewed from the outside, the mass comprising wings surrounding large internal courtyards appears a closed one, as it is a composition of buildings which are much like palaces. This was the only way Ferstel could realise the contradiction of spectacular growth in scales and dimensions. Renaissance details were meant to meet the ambition to formal perfection by choosing the “strict Historicism” fashionable in Vienna then. The university of Vienna proved a highly influential design, both because of its monumentality and architectural appearance. The university type wide-spread in the latter half of the 19th century featured a characteristic palatial facade combined with an internal courtyard, as well as spectacular and imposing appearance as a rule.

Gottfried Semper designed the main building of the famous Zurich-based ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) built from 1859 to 1864. The architectural programme of this complex included all the important functions. As a result of Semper's practical-mindedness, rooms were placed as a sequence of coordinated spaces accessed by corridors on the inner side in the wings enclosing two large courtyards. This design facilitated differentiated spatial formation, such as those of the central and corner projections. Rows of rooms behind the central projection (foyer, grand staircases, aula) were also used for representation. The spacious ground-plan necessitated further service stairs in the side wings. Semper thus created a complex and yet well-usable spatial system, which has proven to be worthy for the complex functions of educational institutions.

Founded in 1879, the building of the Technische Universität Berlin was designed by Richard Lucae and Friedrich Hitzig. The “cour d'honneur"-type form did not serve the dynamics of Baroque space creation any longer, but the solid ending of the square in front of the mass with a longish facade. The lengthwise extension of the building allowed for a more efficient utilisation of the internal courtyards and thus the large halls placed in the courtyard could receive natural light from both sides. Where development permitted to place a longish building with several internal courtyards, this type has proven an ideal one.

Soon after the French-Prussian war (1870-1871) the Kaiser-Wilhelm Universität was founded in Strassburg (today: Strasbourg). The building featured a grand Neo-Renaissance palatial facade designed by Otto Warth. As the representative sequence of rooms (foyer, aula) defined by the central projection had to regain their key role, Warth designed a T shaped ground-plan. The corner projections to the ends of the side wings housed the departments, whilst the connecting corridors with rooms of various floor-sizes were used as lecture-halls. The new building was a spectacular expression of the relationship between the united and integral idea of Germany and science.

As a synthesis of the universities of Zurich (1859-1864), Vienna (1871-1884), Berlin (1879) and Strasbourg (1872), the prototype of 19th-century historicising university evolved. The ground floor plan was symmetrical, organised around several courtyards with rooms sequenced a long the main axis, including an aula and grand staircases. The internal courtyards housed lecture halls, the corner projections contained the departments and offices, or even lecture-halls. The characteristically four-storey building contained different functions level by level: workshops and storage in the basement, administration and other service areas on the mezzanine, a series of main rooms on the first storey, and lecture-rooms on the second storey. Large and spacious rooms were furnished here. The traditional palatial design influenced both the groundplan and the facade design. The prevailing style of the period was still the Neo-Renaissance, partly because of the evolving eclectic stylistic trend, and partly because of the symbolic relationship between the university and spiritual revival. Universities in German-speaking countries symbolized the power, greatness and grandness of the state despite all historicising features, whilst universities in England represented the Romantic architectural trend as a rule and thus the legal continuity of medieval universities.

By the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the so-called red-brick universities had mushroomed almost everywhere. Applying brick extensively on the whole facade was a tradition rooted in the brick architecture of medieval towns of Northern Germany and along the Atlantic coasts. During the 19th century, eclecticism often used brickwork at random for decoration. Brick as a practical material for facades with natural effects came into focus by the early 20th century. Relying on Arts and Crafts movement and John Ruskin's