The new ZEB center will be built in two phases on the Campus of Tübingen University. The conversion of the former Alte Physiologie building, which was built between 1865 and 1868, requires extensive renovations as well as the demolition of connecting wings. Renovations in the 1960s had already added an additional floor and a lecture hall, and our design builds on this concept with the new building added as an extension. The second construction phase will dismantle the animal husbandry building from 1957 and replace it with a new extension.

In addition to performing basic renovations related to technology, fire protection, energy efficiency, structural safety and visual appearance, the project completely replaces the roof while retaining the original cubature and hipped design. The new roof structure will improve access to natural light and offer high-quality, flexible office space. Adding windows on the ground floor guarantees sufficient lighting here as well. The design does away with various load-bearing walls in the corridors and replaces them with structural beams and supports, thereby offering the space and flexibility to set up and easily change floorplans: from cellular offices and co-working or business club layouts to open plan configurations and other workplace concepts.

The neighboring new extension takes certain features of the Alte Physiologie façade and reinterprets them, creating one large building that is joined at the foyer of the main entrance. The internal atrium overlooks the original façade and visually links the old with the new. This area acts as a transition between the original building with differing ceiling heights and the new construction with more contemporary dimensions, enabling barrier-free access with a series of ramps. Adopting certain horizontal elements of the original building, the design extends the ridge and plinth line across the new extension. The textile reinforced concrete façade is made with recycled concrete and rendered in a color that matches the building blocks of the original building’s plinth. The grooved pattern created by these blocks is repeated in an ornamental metal grid covering the fully-glazed plinth of the new extension.