Heilbronn news 3/25 - Architecture competition for ETH buildings decided
In five years, ETH Zurich will be able to move into new buildings on the education campus in?Heilbronn.?The design of the buildings has now been decided.
Construction is underway on the education campus in Heilbronn. In the coming years, the Bildungscampus West will almost double the existing area. The new part, which borders on the banks of the Neckar, will also contain the buildings into which ETH will move.
Two building complexes on the banks of the Neckar
Two two-part building complexes are planned on the south-eastern edge of the new Bildungscampus West, directly on the banks of the Neckar. The Technical University of Munich, the the Fraunhofer Heilbronn Research and Innovation Centres (HNFIZ) and the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute will also be located in the immediate vicinity.
Last autumn, the Dieter Schwarz Foundation launched an architectural competition for the new buildings on the Bildungscampus West, including those that will house ETH Zurich. As a basis for this, ETH Zurich had the opportunity to contribute its future needs and requirements in terms of space. Basic principles, spatial relationships and the desired appearance were also included. In order to ensure diverse architecture on the campus, more than 20 architectural firms were invited to compete for the campus expansion.
asp Architekten Stuttgart and HPP Düsseldorf emerged as the winners for the ETH buildings. "They did a particularly good job of creating an attractive and lively place on the campus for students, researchers and other interested parties that reflects the identity of ETH Zurich," says Reto Grimm, the portfolio manager responsible at the Real Estate department. He was particularly impressed by how everyone involved - from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation to the jury and the architects - responded to the needs of ETH.
The aim was to create buildings in which users see the public space as an extension of the inner space and thus transfer the university atmosphere to the urban space. By extending the "private space" into the public space, the architecture should also invite visitors to come into contact and interact with ETH.
The visualisations of the winning project show how excellently the two offices have solved this task. As the jury stated in its report, a "forward-looking and modern teaching and research centre will be created on the ETH campus Heilbronn, which will have a far-reaching impact not only due to its research topics, but also in terms of its external impact".
In the coming months, the project will be concretised and further tailored to the needs of ETH. "Other ETH departments will be involved or consulted during this consolidation phase," says Reto Grimm.
Growth in the office
The office is currently housed in the "Kleiner Kiesel" building, around 500 metres from the future buildings. Workstations for two dozen employees and meeting rooms are available here.
In June, ETH employee number two, Sophia Dieterich, started work in Heilbronn. She is responsible for events and hospitality management and will, among other things, support Managing Director Michele De Lorenzi in organising an interdisciplinary summer school on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Science, which ETH Zurich is holding on the Heilbronn education campus at the end of June.
De Lorenzi has also been able to recruit Theresa Ellinger as Executive Assistant. She will help to build up the internal administration from September. In the course of the second half of the year, Jan Hiss, an experienced ETH employee from the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, will join the office as Strategic Advisor and Project Leads. Another employee from the Heilbronn area will join the team in the same function.
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