Mensa, Student Service Center and Fulda University and State Library
The starting point for the planning task was a university landscape in Fulda, whose urban structure emerged from a former barracks development. The existing buildings were implemented by the university and supplemented by further new buildings. For the competition task, we asked ourselves how the new building blocks could transform the defining image of the barracks development into a university landscape with a central campus idea.
This gave rise to the idea for the new development with a central square, which forms the new identity-creating centre within the existing structural situation. The three buildings, for the cafeteria, library and student service center, define the square edges of the new campus and are grouped around a central square area with an integrated plane tree grove. The square forms the centre of an urban networking of the existing building with the new development to form a coherent university campus by taking up and strengthening existing visual axes and path systems. As soon as you enter the university, you are directed to the Study Centre, which is a three-storey building with an inviting foyer gesture facing the square. In this group, the two-storey canteen opens up to the south through generous glazing and, in conjunction with the green square, has a very nice quality of stay. Resting on the square, the library, which is also three-storey, becomes an intermediary, as it takes up the height difference in the existing terrain and closes the ensemble. Analogous to the other two buildings, the main entrance here is also consistently oriented towards the new center. The floor plan of the library offers a high degree of flexibility. The central airspace shows an open character of the library as a place of communication. Behind it are the shelving systems and a large number of rooms and niches for concentrated work. The cafeteria forms a central meeting place on campus and is multifunctionally used for various events of the university. In addition to the counseling centers for students and university administration, the Student Service Center also houses its own seminar/event area.
1st Prize Competition 2009
Client: State of Hesse, represented by Hessian Construction Management – Regional Branch North
Location: Fulda
Work phases: 2-9
Size: 12,145 m² GFA
Performance period: 2011 – 2013
Award: BDA Architecture Prize 2018
[Text: ATELIER 30 Architekten GmbH] (http://atelier30.de/fulda)
Pictures: Werner Huthmacher
Isometrics: Kim Lopez in Seminar FASSADE4.0 at TUK
The preparatory work for this project publication was done as part of the building construction theory in the seminar FACADE 4.0 at TUK through a student thesis by Kim Lopez.
