The new student house is ready

"I am delighted that we can hand over a real gem to our students today," said University President Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey during the opening ceremony. The new student house is located in a listed building complex of the former Gottschalk textile factory, the so-called head buildings. The construction project cost around 7.3 million euros and was financed by the federal government and the state of Hesse with funds from the Higher Education Pact 2020.

Hesse's Minister for Science and the Arts Angela Dorn congratulated the University of Kassel on the project, which was successfully carried out under its own ownership, and said: "Thanks to the university's commitment, the participation of the students and with the funding from our Higher Education Pact 2020-Invest program, it has been possible to convert an industrial monument into a special place of cultural and social life for the students on campus. I am sure that the new student house in Kassel, as a model project, will continue to attract a great deal of attention in the higher education landscape."

The student house not only provides space for the offices of the AStA and the autonomous units of the student body, but also contains event areas for exhibitions, readings, theater and music events. In the future, students will have a total of approximately 1,400 m² of usable space at their disposal. "As a central contact point and meeting place for all students under one roof, the new student house further enhances student life in Kassel," says AStA Chairman Tobias Marczykowski with pleasure. "We thank all those involved for the good cooperation over the past years. The result is really something to be proud of," adds Anna Sadok, who accompanied the project as a student for many years.

The new event space in the basement, which AStA will operate under the name "Färberei," can accommodate up to 350 visitors. It is equipped with a multifunctional stage, backstage, and bar area and can be used for a colorful variety of cultural events. The "Kulturzentrum K 19", which was previously used as a student event hall, will be closed and put to a new use in the course of further construction measures on the North Campus.

The power supply for the new student house is also exemplary: thanks to the support of the cdw Foundation, a modern photovoltaic system was installed on the roof, which will cover around 75 percent of the electricity requirements. "This will save around 29 tons of_CO2 per year," cdw managing director Thomas Flügge explained at the event.

Originally built in 1910, the buildings have been carefully renovated and remodeled in recent years. "The exterior appearance of the facades remained largely unchanged in terms of design in order to continue to make the history and traces of use of the building legible," described Prof. Wolfgang Schulze. The recently retired professor had launched a student competition in the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning, Landscape Planning (ASL) in 2015 under the motto "Students plan for students."

The winning designs that emerged from this formed the basis of further construction measures, which were further developed by students in different departments. Thus, there were a number of projects in the departments of ASL, Civil Engineering and the School of Art, for example on the technical equipment of the buildings, open space design, building surveying, the design of graffiti or structural analysis. In 2018, the University of Kassel was successful in the Hessian University Award for Excellence in Teaching with the format "Students Plan for Students."

Together with a project team consisting of student representatives of the AStA, representatives of the Department of Construction and Technology of the University of Kassel, the architectural firm Kreter-Peters-Lubenow, the offices RBS-Ingenieure and PPC Projekt-Planung & Consulting GmbH and other specialist planners (fire protection, preservation of historical monuments, etc.). the student house was thus designed in large part by the users themselves.

Contact:

Markus Zens
University of Kassel
Communications, Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-1961
E-mail: presse@uni-kassel.de
www.uni-kassel.de