Construction Has Begun for the New UNIT Building

Grundsteinlegung auf einer Baustelle: Katrin Schoppa und Thomas Fetzer mit weißen Schutzhelmen halten Dokumente und stehen lächelnd vor einer Kupferkapsel. Im Hintergrund Bauarbeiter in Warnwesten.

On Friday, 14 March, there was a small ceremony for the new building of the University IT (UNIT) in A5, during which the foundation stone was laid. A sustainable three-story new building will be built by mid-2027.

“This is a particularly important moment in the history of our university,” said President Professor Dr. Thomas Fetzer at the laying of the foundation stone. “The UNIT is at the heart of the university and is indispensable for teaching, research and administration. At the same time, the new building will be a central point of the new campus, which grows together here.” In his speech, he also emphasized that the innovative construction will not only set new technical and ecological standards: “For the first time, we can test new and flexible room concepts that we have developed together with our employees – such as open space workspaces or multifunctional learning rooms.”

Ralf Eisenhauer, mayor of the city of Mannheim, thanked the university and the Land of Baden-Württemberg on behalf of the city for contributing to urban development with the new buildings in B6 and the new UNIT building.

Afterwards, Fetzer and Eisenhauer, together with the university’s Executive Vice President Dr. Katrin Schoppa-Bauer and Marco Grübbel, head of the state office for property and construction Mannheim/Heidelberg (Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg) stepped into the excavation pit. At the ceremony, Grübbel read out the foundation stone certificate, which includes the wish that this place becomes a place of well-being and inspiration. Together with Fetzer and Schoppa, he put a current issue of the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper, an USB stick with a review of the UNIT from 2024, a copy of the university's strategic plan, symbolic coins, and a bottle of wine in the metal box, which serves as the foundation stone.

Advanced sustainability concept

The new building is a timber construction, combined with elements of recycled concrete, an extraordinary photovoltaic facade, and a green flat roof and uses waste heat from the data center for heating and cooling. The construction costs amount to about 39.5 million euros. The completion of the building is planned for mid-2027. More information on the construction project can be found at: https://www.uni-mannheim.de/neubau-unit (in German)

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