Vaihingen Campus – a university hub in the woods. In 1959, work began on clearing the Pfaffenwald, situated right next to the Stuttgart suburb of Vaihingen and forming part of the green belt around Stuttgart, in order to build university buildings for the University of Stuttgart. From the outset, the open meadow ‘in the woods’ provided space for experimental buildings.

The ‘Bauhäusle’, a student hall of residence built by the students themselves – erected as a temporary solution but still intact and much loved – is an early example of participatory architecture. Right next to it stands the now famous Hysolar building by the Behnisch architectural practice, an early deconstructivist manifesto. The Centre for Virtual Engineering is also a collaboration between the architects (UN Studio) and the Fraunhofer Institute, in which interdisciplinary project teams directly incorporated the new institute’s research findings into the building’s construction.

On a walk across the campus, we will discover these and other experimental architectural projects.