In the 1960s, the University of Copenhagen grew too big for its old buildings in the centre of Copenhagen and it was decided to move the entire Faculty of Humanities out of the city. The politicians were unable to agree on where the new buildings should be placed, what they should look like and so on, and while they were discussing the matter, the number of students grew... Something had to be done. So it was finally decided to build a temporary structure while the matter was further discussed. This building is still being used...

The Building

The building consists of a number of connected squares with little yards in the middle of them. Some squares are two storeys high, others are three storeys high, and they all vary in size and shape. Over the years some of the little yards have been turned into rooms due to lack of space. All of this, combined with a very dull and uniform interior, has made it almost impossible to navigate inside the building. This was obvious even to the architects, so in order to help the poor students and teachers, all rooms were given a code of numbers. However, that almost makes matters worse...

Interpretation of Room Numbers

Lets use room 7.2.17 as an example. At first sight, its situation appears logical. The '7' means that the room is located near staircase number seven¹. The '2' means that the room is placed on the second floor. However, this is where the fun starts because in Denmark, the ground floor is called the ground floor, the floor on top of that is called the first and so on. However, in the Faculty of Humanities, the ground floor is called the first floor, and the first floor is called the second floor. Thus, the '2' actually means that the room is placed on the first floor.

Lastly, we come to the mystery of the '17'. This last number is the actual number of the room, but this is where all logic ceases. The number tells us how many metres the room is from the staircase. Now, this quickly turns out the be the most useless piece of information one could ever want two minutes before a class is about to start - 17 metres is detailed specification, but in which direction? Usually it is possible to go in search for a room in at least four, sometimes many more, directions.

Do not count on friendly little signs to appear telling you where to go. Do not count on it being in some or other way obvious when you've managed to find the right staircase and floor, because it is not. All you can do is take a casual stroll², and then once you've found it, find a way to remember where it is, in spite of the fact that every hall and every room looks exactly the same.

At some point you may even get as far as to learn that the room 7.2.17 is in the Department of English, but that's exclusively a question of experience!

Good luck!