Kaserne, Platz und Forum. Manifestationen eines academical village

Abstract

Abstract Thomas Jefferson coined the image of the academical village for the university-campus. Whereupon the word village can be translated into the German expression ›Dorf‹ (village) as well as ›Gemeinde‹ (community). Thus the place and people, who enliven their surroundings, are an integral part of the campus. This metaphor gathers the cultural imprint of the campus as an ideal environment for learning as well as its incorporated imaginations. This article follows the question, if the buildings of a university can be seen as a result of the social structures of the academical village. Perhaps they were intended from the beginning on as a production of these social configurations. Therefore this paper wants to inquire specifically into the expressiveness of architecture in the specific case of the early Saarbrücken campus planning of the Universität des Saarlandes. The field of tension university shall be approached as a topic between representative institution and architectural manifestation.