Faculty of Engineering holds topping out ceremony for innovation centre and new lecture hall building

Only nine months after laying the foundation stone, the shell structure of the new Innovationszentrum für Forschung und Technologietransfer (innovation centre for research and technology transfer) at Kiel University (CAU) has been completed. It is the first major building project in the redevelopment of the Ostufer Campus, which is in desperate need of modernisation. The total cost of the building work, which is to be managed by regional building management company Gebäudemanagement Schleswig-Holstein AöR (GMSH), is approximately €61 million. This will provide the Faculty of Engineering with a lecture hall building as well as a research building for the interdisciplinary Centre for Networked Sensor Systems (ZEVS). The CAU’s expertise in sensor technology will be brought together under one roof here and used for medical, maritime and energy-related applications as well as recording environmental data. Completion is planned for the summer of 2023. The contractors held the topping out ceremony today (Friday 9 December). GMSH Managing Director Frank Eisoldt, CAU Chancellor Claudia Ricarda Meyer, Vice Dean Prof. Martina Gerken and Kiel’s Mayor Dr Ulf Kämpfer took part.

Despite supply chain problems and the tense economic situation, the building works are on schedule: GMSH Managing Director Frank Eisoldt was delighted to state that “Only nine months after laying the foundation stone, the shell structure has been completed and only eight months after the topping out ceremony we will be able to celebrate handing over the keys to a major and complex building project. This has been possible in such a short time because everyone involved has worked together so professionally and exceptionally well. And this project proves that cooperation with a general contractor can be an important addition to conventional construction and can help manage more building works conducted in parallel.”

“In connection with the new research building, Kiel University's efforts in the area of technology transfer will be given a significant boost. Modern research equipment and excellent experts are the one side of this equation. With modern infrastructure for research, teaching and partnerships, we can now really make full use of this potential,” stressed Chancellor Claudia Ricarda Meyer. “In ZEVS we aim to consolidate our research activities in the field of sensor technology, network with regional industry and initiate future-oriented projects together. We are already very much looking forward to the new research opportunities to be had in the ZEVS laboratories,” added Professor Martina Gerken, Vice Dean and Director of ZEVS. This will provide an important infrastructural reinforcement to sensor technology research as one of the central themes of the priority research area KiNSIS (Kiel Nano, Surface and Interface Science).

The new lecture hall building will become the new entrance to the campus in Gaarden, and is an important building block towards linking the faculty with this city district. On this subject, Kiel’s Mayor Dr Ulf Kämpfer said that “With ZEVS and the new lecture hall building, this will be a campus that is not only future-proof in terms of urban planning and the environment, but is also open to the city district. The redevelopment of the Faculty of Engineering site was an essential component of our urban development plan ‘Gaarden hoch 10’ (Gaarden to the power of 10) from the outset. I am delighted that the topping out ceremony takes us a significant step forward – this is good for the campus and for Gaarden, which will be able to grow together and benefit from each other even more in the future. I would be very pleased if the student hall of residence planned for the campus could also be built soon.”

ZEVS will form the core of the redeveloped Ostufer Campus. This new four-storey building will cover more than 3,600 square metres and house laboratories, offices and a conference room for public seminars. An experimental basin will be in place on the ground floor which is unparalleled in civil research and required complex foundations on the construction site. The compact, multi-functional body of the building with transparent ground floor zones is typically Nordic and will be clad in brick like its surrounding buildings. The three-story lecture hall building will house two lecture halls with tiered seating as well as student workstations and group rooms. On the upper floors there will be a cafeteria with an open-air terrace and a specialist library. Both new buildings are designed to meet the requirements for silver quality standard certification with the German Assessment System for Sustainable Building (BNB). For this purpose, photovoltaic systems will be installed on both roofs, among other measures. The majority of the total cost of approximately €61 million for ZEVS and the new lecture hall building will be paid for by the state government of Schleswig-Holstein through its contribution of around €43 million. ZEVS will also receive funding of around €18.3 million from the European Regional Development Fund.

These two building projects mark the start of the implementation of the urban development framework plan for the 30,000 square metre grounds of the former shipyard that was drawn up and adopted by all those involved in 2018. In addition, a new campus square will be laid out for the Faculty of Engineering by the end of 2024, providing it with its first green spaces and significantly improving the amenity value of the campus.