UNIT, IT and Computing Center for the University of Mannheim, ongoing

The new building for the University of Mannheim’s IT and computing center presents itself as a compact and yet transparent four-story structure that is recognizable as a modular hybrid wood building. Taking up a prominent urban position, it functions as a solitary intermediary between the existing portion of the campus on city blocks A5 and B6, the planned new campus on the park, and the adjacent block A4, with its historic observatory and baroque Jesuit church.

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The ground floor is accessible to the general public and has an open design. In addition to the IT help center, the lobby also incorporates seminar and training rooms as well as temporary workstations for students. The upper floors will accommodate office spaces and open communication zones for the IT and computing center. Two inner courtyards ensure bright rooms despite the building’s depth in plan and, combined with floor openings within the central, communication-promoting stair zone, enable visual relationships between floors. The server rooms of the computing center are located in a vast underground level.

In a later, second construction phase, the building will be expanded to have a configuration with a square footprint. Together with the university buildings on block B6 that we completed in 2017 and 2021, this building on city block A5 adjoins the planned campus square and articulates its entrance situation.

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VgV procedure
10 2020

Start of planning
Expected 2024

Completion
Expected 2027

Client
Land Baden-Württemberg, represented by
Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg
Amt Mannheim und Heidelberg, Mannheim

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Visualizations
BUERO BB

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