The new Centre for Empirical Educational Research (ZEB) is being built in two construction phases at the University of Tübingen. The conversion of the existing Old Physiology building, which dates from 1865–1868, requires extensive renovation. The building was already raised in the 1960s and extended to include a lecture hall. Our design continues this concept and also develops the new building as an extension. Accordingly, in the second construction phase, the animal housing building from 1957 will be replaced by an extension.
The expansion of the roof truss will improve the overall lighting situation. New areas for office use will be created. Windows will be added to the ground floor to ensure sufficient lighting here as well. Load-bearing walls in the hallway area will be removed and replaced with joists and supports. This will allow for open and flexible use of the entire area. Cell offices as well as co-working, business club, open-space and other office concepts can be implemented and flexibly modified as needed.
The adjacent new building takes up façade elements from the old physiology building and reinterprets them. The result is a single building connected by a foyer with a shared main entrance. The atrium in the interior offers a view of the façade of the existing building, thus enabling a direct connection. In this area, the different floor heights of the old building and the contemporary room heights of the new building are reconciled, and ramps provide barrier-free access.
Horizontal elements of the existing building are incorporated, with the ridge and plinth lines being retained throughout the new building. The textile concrete façade made of recycled concrete is not only colour-coordinated with the existing building's masonry. The grooved masonry of the base is also reflected in the base of the new building in the form of a metal mesh with the same joint format. Glazing behind it ensures transparency and additional lighting.
Competition:
Realization:
Specialist planners:
Georg Keller + Co. Ingenieurgesellschaft mbh, Tübingen (Structural design)
Klett Ingenieur GmbH, Fellbach (Building services)
LWKONZEPT, Stuttgart (Fire proofing)
realgrün Landschaftsarchitekten und Stadtplaner mbH, Munich (Landscape design)
Visualization:
Forbes Massie Studio, London