“Forum Physik” opens in the historic institute building

In addition to representatives of the Department of Physics, the Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs, Professor Thomas Walther, the directorate of building management and services and some of the planning offices involved also took part in the event. On 25 June, the project can also be visited by the interested public as part of the Day of Architecture.

A design entitled “Table and Cloud” by the Darmstadt-based architectural firm prosa Architektur + Stadtplanung, which won a competition against ten other submissions in 2018, was implemented. On the one hand, it consists of a table-like, self-supporting wooden structure set into the courtyard, which serves as a forum area on the upper side and as a laboratory on the lower side. Short footbridges lead from the corridors of the building to the forum area and link the users in its centre. The “cloud”, on the other hand, is a light construction made of air cushions and curved steel tubes that spans the former inner courtyard.

The forum serves as a physics teaching and learning laboratory, for events and training courses. The lower floor also houses optical laboratories.

Building S2|07 at Hochschulstraße 4 was erected together with building S2|10 by Erwin Marx between 1893 and 1895. Badly damaged in the Second World War, it was rebuilt soon after the end of the war – raised by one storey.