Architect's prize for new building at the Helmholtz Institute Jena
11.12.2023 |
The new research building of the Helmholtz Institute Jena has been decorated with an architectural award: The office "Osterwold°Schmidt EXP!ANDER Architekten" from Weimar was honored with the "best architects award 24" for the new building, which was opened last winter. The "best architects award" is one of the most prestigious architectural awards in Europe and is considered a seal of quality for outstanding architectural achievement.
The new building of the Helmholtz Institute Jena, a branch of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, was constructed within almost 2,5 years in the immediate vicinity of the existing institute building on the campus of the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) Jena. Several floors provide additional offices, seminar and laboratory areas, which are necessary for the increased number of employees as well as for the amount of laboratory and research equipment. The new building designed by "Osterwold°Schmidt EXP!ANDER Architekten" adds around 550 square meters of usable space. Offices and a seminar room are available on the two top floors, while the two lower floors mostly house research laboratories in addition to building technology and supply services. The four-storey, cube-shaped building is connected to the already existing target laboratory in the basement of the adjacent building.
The Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure had announced an architectural competition for the new research building. The winner was a regional office: The jury voted unanimously for the design by "Osterwold°Schmidt EXP!ANDER Architekten" office in Weimar, which had submitted the plans jointly with Impuls Landschaftsarchitektur Jena. Groundbreaking for the new building, which was constructed on a hillside location on a state-owned plot of land within the university site below the Landgrafen, took place in October 2019. The ceremonial opening after the successful joint implementation with the "Osterwold°Schmidt EXP!ANDER Architekten" was in November 2022. The €8.9 million construction cost of the research building was fully financed by state funds from the Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture
With the architecturally outstanding, additional institute building, it was possible to further improve the infrastructural conditions for the cutting-edge research that will take place at the Helmholtz Institute Jena in the future and has been conducted since the institute was founded in 2009. The research profile of the Helmholtz Institute Jena is characterized by physics at the interface between conventional accelerator technology and the rapidly developing field of laser-based particle acceleration. The institute offers outstanding research in the areas of the coupling of intense photon fields and the supporting development of adequate instrumentation. In addition, the Helmholtz Institute Jena will further expand and strengthen the close connection between the university and the research facility GSI with the international accelerator center FAIR, currently being built at GSI in Darmstadt. (BP)
Further information
About the Helmholtz Institute Jena
About Osterwold°Schmidt EXP!ANDER Architekten
