THE MIKOŁAJ KOPERNIK UNIVERSITY CAMPUS IN TORUŃ 1967-1973

MICHAŁ PSZCZÓŁKOWSKI

The UMK campus was the first complete and homogeneous realisation of this type in Poland. As a campus location, Bielany, in the suburbs of Toruń, was selected. The design was developed by the professionals from the Faculty of Architecture of Warsaw University of Technology. Between 1967 and 1973 a complex of common university buildings, educational buildings and facilities provided for special purposes appeared. All of these buildings were situated along two perpendicular lines.

Apart from being based on typical modern town planning features, the campus also follows more universal rules of town planning which have been developed throughout the ages (e.g. modern, representative meeting and trade places, monumental architecture). It also presents features typical of modern universities that make it possible to link with the American and European realisations. Significantly, it was only slightly dependent on the ‘architectural instructions’ of the Soviet Union. This was influenced both by the quite different organisation of the Soviet universities and the immensely strong inspiration of the Western architecture in Poland after 1956.