Architecture shapes behaviour
The pentagonal building of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University Stuttgart, Faculty of Engineering, is a 14,000 m² learning environment that promotes exchange and personal interaction between students and lecturers. The Danish architecture firm 3XN won the Europe-wide competition in 2013. The university building for the subjects of industrial engineering, mechatronics, computer science, electrical engineering, embedded systems and mechanical engineering offers space for 2,000 students and university staff. Due to energy considerations, the heavy traffic and the limited plot size of the inner city site, a glass roofed atrium was created as a year round recreation area.
Lecture, laboratories, workshop rooms and offices are glazed to room height overlooking the atrium, with a total of 790 m² of fall-proof glazing. This opens up the study programmes on the various floors to the communal area, making it possible to discern the different uses. The objective of maximum transparency was achieved with the fecoplan all-glass construction from the Karlsruhe-based system wall manufacturer feco. In addition, the fecoplan glass system wall with its curved profile is used in the preparation rooms and serves as a point of reference in the vicinity of the spectacular spiral staircase. These spaces are available to the students as an agile working environment for learning and developing solutions together. Double-leaf wooden door elements allow for easy installation of large format mobile monitors.
Meeting rooms in the centre zone of the administrative area are double-glazed on two sides of the room with fecofix flush with the wall. This not only makes the rooms more attractive, it also means that the occupancy of these rooms, which are accessed from two corridors, is visible and disruptions are avoided.
Transparency is a design principle at DHBW Stuttgart that promotes cross-faculty knowledge transfer and a sense of community. The result is an open space that fosters an open mindset among students and the university team: “Architecture shapes behaviour”. As a BNB Silver certified sustainable building with a 500 m² photovoltaic system and green roof areas, the building is also forward thinking in terms of energy.