Festive opening ceremony to honour the construction of a new laboratory and seminar hall at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences - Engineering and Business

On July 13th the new construction of the laboratory and seminar hall on the campus of the University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe was officially opened and celebrated. The new construction is to replace the current P building.

The welcome was given by Frau Annette Ipach-Öhmann, Director of the State Office of Property and Construction of Baden-Württemberg, followed by Gisela Splett, State Secretary of Finance as the keynote speaker, and then by Petra Olschowski, State Secretary in the Ministry of the Arts as well as Senior Mayor Dr. Frank Mentrup and President Prof. Dr. Frank Artinger. They all emphasized the importance of this new construction for the further development and future viability of the University’s operation.

After a construction period of more than three years, the project designed by architects Schulz and Schulz has now been completed. Estimated construction costs were 21 million Euro. The four-storey building with state-of-the-art laboratory, lecture and seminar rooms is to be used by the faculty for electrical engineering and information technology.

The support structure of the building is made of reinforced concrete with a single-storey partial basement. The essential architectural element is the façade of the building, which is made of large pre-cast modular elements and deserves special recognition. The façade also embodies the realisation of the Arts in construction, as a number of modular concrete parts on the east side combine to depict the image of a fingerprint, which is pressed into the surface of the finished parts.

Dr.-Ing. Ioannis Retzepis, Managing Director and partner at KREBS+KIEFER’s Karlsruhe location, is the inspecting engineer for the entire construction project, including the excavation pit.

By the way, the fingerprint on the “N” building is a hybrid of various other fingerprints. It is a symbol for digital sensitivity, electronic sensor technology and a sign of uniqueness.

Video presentation of the University