Otaniemi University of Technology (TKK)

Alvar Aalto designed the campus for the Otaniemi Technical University in Espoo, Finland between 1949 and 1966. Aalto's buildings for the university include the main building, the library, the shopping centre, and the water tower, with a crescent-shaped auditorium at the center. "The focal point of this university centre is the auditorium building with two large halls (also intended for congresses). Its staircase-like ascending rows of windows suggest from the outside and amphitheatre. All tuition rooms are in adjacent buildings grouped about small internal courts, and here are also found the smaller lecture-rooms, laboratories and professors' rooms. The centre is divided into three principal departments: general, geodetic and architectural. The chief materials are dark red brick, black granite and copper." From: Egon Tempel. New Finnish Architecture. New York, Washington: Frederick A. Praeger, 1968. p125.