University of Jyväskylä

The extended deadline for the general planning competition was May 21, 1951. Aalto won first prize with the entry 'Urbs', and was immediately commissioned to work out plans for the individual buildings on the basis of the winning entry. Construction began in 1953. The extensive site on the grounds of the old teacher training college consists of a wide depression next to a pine-clad ridge near the centre of town. Aalto laid out a planted campus accessible only to pedestrians, with a sports field in the middle of the depression, leaving the late 19th-century college buildings higher up on the ridge. Aalto's buildings form a loose U pattern that begins on the north side of the campus with the main building, which is made up of a fan-shaped auditorium wing and a rectangular three-storey classroom and laboratory wing. The two sections are connected by a high hall containing an attractive Venetian staircase. (For complete text see website).