Winner Design Selected for the Structural and Urban Design Framework for the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN)

In der Grafik werden die Campusumrisse aus Vogelperspektive dargestellt. Der Blick geht von der Dr.-Luise-Herzberg-Straße stadteinwärts.
Das Architekturmodell der UTN (Copyright: Ferdinand Heide Architekt/TOPOS Stadtplanung Landschaftsplanung Stadtforschung)

According to the Founding President Prof. Dr. Prömel, “the chosen design offers an excellent basis for implementing the ambitious concept of the University of Technology Nuremberg: a campus university where everything is close by, offering an excellent infrastructure for top-notch research and teaching.”

MUNICH. The planning for the new University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN) is taking shape. Following the resolution of the Council of Ministers on the foundation of the new university in 2017 and a month-long planning phase in which four interdisciplinary planning teams from all over Europe were involved, the decision-making committee with representatives from the State of Bavaria, the city of Nuremberg and the new university selected the winning design for the structural and framework planning of the new campus in the south of Nuremberg.

In the ensuing press conference, Bavaria’s Construction Minister, Kerstin Schreyer, the Minister of Science, Bernd Sibler, Marcus König, the Lord Mayor of Nuremberg, and the Founding President of UTN, Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Prömel, announced that the design of the team of Ferdinand Heide Architekten/TOPOS had been selected.

The University of Technology Nuremberg will be the first new foundation of a state-run university in Bavaria since 1978. With its consistent interdisciplinary approach, its innovative choice of subjects, new teaching methods and a future-oriented organization structure it is to become a model in the academic landscape of Bavaria. Kerstin Schreyer, the Construction Minister, is delighted by the fact that this approach is reflected in the initial planning for the new campus. “The concept of the new university promises top-notch research and teaching. To ensure this, students, teachers and employees shall have the optimum environment. Our selection process for the structural and framework planning has laid the foundation for a pulsating campus where all those are the focus who study and work there.”

The University of Technology Nuremberg is Taking Shape

Bavaria’s Minister of Science, Bernd Sibler, notes: “The University of Technology Nuremberg offers the unique possibility to re-think the concept of a university from scratch. The plot on Brunecker Straße is the ideal location for tailoring both space and infrastructure precisely to the profile of our tenth state-run university. Today’s decision is a further milestone on the way towards establishing the University of Technology Nuremberg. With its close ties to the surrounding quarters, this modern campus will offer our academic community everything needed to combine learning, teaching and living. I am very proud of this large-scale project, which is a beacon for the Bavarian landscape of higher education.”

According to Nuremberg’s Lord Mayor Marcus König, “the University of Technology Nuremberg is a once-in-a-century project for the city of Nuremberg. With students and scientists from all over the world, UTN will attract forward-looking knowledge, innovation and internationality to our city. Research and economy will interlink even more closely. In the next two decades, Nuremberg will make a giant leap forward with the foundation of this new university. It will leave a new mark on the national and international map of higher education and science and will prove to be a big impulse for a completely new quarter in the south of Nuremberg.”

Founding President Prof. Dr. Prömel: “The selected design is an excellent basis for putting the ambitious concept of the University of Technology Nuremberg into practice: to establish a campus university where everything is close by and which offers an excellent infrastructure for top-notch research and teaching.”

A First Step towards Structural Development of the new Campus

The new university campus will be part of a new quarter covering almost 90 hectares in the south of Nuremberg where the former southern railway station had been located. The plot of land which is not yet accessible will provide space for the university and further research institutes, as well as living quarters for up to 6,500 people. As a basis for the urban and open space redesign of the current wasteland, four interdisciplinary planning teams from all over Europe, in dialogue with a high-level expert committee, had been working on suggestions for the structural and framework planning of the university site in the past few months.

Today, the decision-making committee chaired by Professor Ulli Seher was asked to select for UTN the design with the highest potential for creating a sense of identity on the urban campus while remaining open for further development. The committee praised the degree of thoroughness and the high quality of all submitted designs. In an integrative approach, topics such as mobility, climate neutrality, sustainability, energy-related issues, nature protection and biodiversity conservation were discussed and taken into consideration.

The unanimously selected design of the planning team of Ferdinand Heide Architekten/TOPOS convinced the committee with its simple and concise layout: the team suggested a structure where the construction sites of the individual departments are grouped around a green center. The image of a table accommodating all departments on an equal footing and the sense of identity created by the campus center serves best to describe the overall idea. The guiding principle of an embedded university is excellently expressed by the chosen structure. The design provides a logical connection to the neighboring residential area and reflects a viable future-oriented design in the sense of the European city. This creates a decentralized and very urban university, in which the various spacial situations provide for a lively quarter.

The award winner, Ferdinand Heide, is pleased with the decision, since it paves the way for a new type of campus, both innovative and urban.

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Copyright: Ferdinand Heide Architekt/TOPOS Stadtplanung Landschaftsplanung Stadtforschung

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About the University of Technology Nuremberg

The University of Technology Nuremberg was founded on January 1, 2021 and has been the first new foundation of a state-run university in Bavaria since 1978.  With its consistently interdisciplinary approach, an innovative spectrum of subjects, new teaching methods and a future-oriented organizational structure, a model university will be created when it comes to teaching and research. The university is to have an international, interdisciplinary and digital approach. Upon completion, up to 6,000 students will be able to study on a campus embedded in the surrounding quarters.