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On January 7, 2007 the German Architect Association (Bund Deutscher Architekten, BDA) awarded its Bremen BDA Award 2006. The Jacobs University to-be, currently still IUB, received one of the four awards for the architectural design of its Campus Center and two laboratories. An independent jury of external experts chose the award-winning projects from a total of 78 applications in September last year. The award ceremony took place in the Bremen’s city hall, thereby also officially opening the exhibition of the projects filed for the competition.
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Jan
08, 2007]
With the award the BDA jury, consisting of Kristin Feireiss, director of the Berlin-Aedes Architecture Forum, as well as the two architects Prof. Bernhard Hirche from Hamburg and Prof. Helmut Riemann from Lübeck, recognized IUB’s Campus Center, Laboratory II and Laboratory III. All three buildings, converted from structures of the former Roland barracks, were completed in 2004 and in 2005 by the Hamburg architecture firm Böge Lindner.
According to the jury, each of the three projects is prize-worthy. The architects were especially successful in transforming the originally austere surroundings of the barracks into imposing buildings, each component with its unique look fitting its respective purpose, thereby representing the idea of a diversified, lively campus. Furthermore, the jury praised the appropriate and sensitive handling of old construction material of the site.
The biggest architectural change in the design of an existing building was made in the construction of the Campus Center, formerly the officers’ casino. The central campus building, now housing the university library and information resource center as well as conference facilities, was provided with a completely new central block, whose glass facade provides a light-flooded interior, between two modernized wings.
Laboratory II, which used to be a tank maintenance hall, now houses 12 research teams from the fields of physics, chemistry, and biosciences, as well as additional teaching labs. Apart from the internal reconstruction of the original site, the lab also was extended by a two-storey annex. Here, fair-faced concrete and glass are the main facade materials. A special feature of the internal design is the partitioning of the laboratories, which not only facilitates the mutual use of equipment, but also encourages the cooperation among the various research teams.
Laboratory III also was remodeled from a former tank maintenance structure. The unique lab complex for behavioral and social science research is now used by experts in communication, neurology, sociology and psychology. It is equipped with state-of-the-art computer and multimedia laboratories for interviews, behavioral observation, psycho-physiological and physical fitness testing, eye-tracking, and many other uses. To create optimum conditions for this kind of research mainly internal alterations were necessary, but the architects also altered the outer appearance of the building by creating entrance areas with distinctive steel facades.
The other three prizes of the BDA competition 2006 were awarded to the newly constructed University of Applied Sciences in Bremerhaven, the remodeled Theater at the Bremen Goethe Platz, and the annex of the Bremen School Center Julius Brecht Allee.
The Exhibition and the BDA Award Bremen
The exhibition introducing all project filed in the competition for the BDA award is open from January 8 to 21, 2007 in the Bremen city hall. Opening hours are Monday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p. m. Guided tours are available every day between 5 p. m. and 6 p.m.
The German Architect Association in Bremen has been awarding the best projects in the field since 1974. An independent jury, comprised of external experts, assesses the originality of new buildings in Bremen and Bremerhaven.
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