Although the campus of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf appears quite homogeneous from today's perspective, it was not created from scratch accompanied by architectural competitions (as was the case in Bochum or Bielefeld, for example). Instead, from the mid-1960s, a “sneaky foundation process” took place through the gradual expansion of a former municipal hospital into a university initially characterized by medical subjects. The architects were Konstanty Gutschow, his colleague Jens-Peter Volkamer (who together designed building 22.01 with the Roy Lichtenstein murals, inaugurated 1970), Georg Lippsmeier and Christoph Parade. Jens Peter Volkamer, Frank Wetzel and Konrad Beckmann won the competition for the university library in 1973. It was opened in 1979. The carefully designed outdoor spaces on the campus respond to the serial architecture with organic forms; Georg Penker was responsible (as in Bochum). It is also evident in the library that, in reaction to the brutalist muscle play of the first campus buildings, a warmer and more playful layer was added through the use of brick walls with some crafted details.

In use. Partly renovation by RKW Architekten since 2012 (last updated on June 1, 2024).

Source: Jürgen Wiener, Andrea von Hülsen-Esch, Hans Körner (Eds.): CampusKunst, Düsseldorf 2014 (with a contribution by Petra Becker on the Roy Lichtenstein murals)