The starting point for the design of the VGU campus is to create a unique atmosphere that combines the special, appealing aspects of the topography and surrounding nature with the characteristics of a typical Central European university campus. The campus is designed as a sustainable, compact "city" that, thanks to its networked structure, provides urban inspiration in the larger context. The river bank on the northern margin of the planning area is transformed into an impressive green belt of vegetation that marks the campus entrance along with the landmark buildings of the festival hall and science park. The counterpart to the belt-like, strictly orthogonal development with its network of roads and paths is the green boulevard which crosses the area of the general project plan diagonally, somewhat like Broadway crosses through Manhattan, and connects the main entrance with the center of the campus. This center is accentuated by a plaza and two important academic buildings: the library and the lecture hall. Other enclosed squares in the area surrounding the center represent junctions within the urban fabric, and an emphasis has been placed on their multifunctional nature of their uses to break up the monotony. In addition, a significant area of landscape – a lush green valley that parallels the latticed structure of the development in an east-west direction – softens the strict lines of the urban network and provides pedestrian access to neighboring residential areas and forests. As a location for cosmopolitan dialogue, a university campus with this combination of elements could represent a prototypical building block for urban development.
