Leeds University - Great Britain

Abstract

Located 1,500 m from the center of the city, the Leeds University complex actively participates in city life. Designed in the 60's and built later on, this architectonic complex is outstanding because it offers an «ideal» city, perfectly integrated in the «real» city and conditioned to its own needs, to a great extent. In the beginning, this challenge of converting this university complex with a capacity for 10,000 students, in an architectonically attractive urban center met with difficulties referring to traffic and parking problems corresponding to a city as large as the one projected; this obstacle was overcome by adequate organization of underground and overhead traffic arteries which reserved large garden areas exclusively for pedestrians, freeing them from the traffic congestion and offering the pleasant and relaxed atmosphere required. The large «campus» ¡s sub-divided into different garden areas, connected one to the other and In the center of each one we have a varied and complementary architecture, which breaks with the conventional monolithic style.