Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences South Krefeld Campus

This new building accommodates two faculties on the Krefeld University campus – including the teaching and research centres for energy management and energy technology as well as the faculty of industrial engineering. On the ground floor, the building is divided into approx. 650 m² lecture halls and approximately 850 m² seminar rooms, a technical centre and a cafeteria. The two upper floors include approx. 3,000 m² of laboratories and offices.

The structure consists of reinforced concrete construction with columns and beams.  Fast + Epp’s task was to develop larger column-free areas with spans of over twelve metres on the ground floor. This meant that heavy loads from the two upper floors had to be distributed sensibly.

In collaboration with the architects, Fast + Epp proposed an unusual solution: reduce the self weight of the reinforced concrete construction with a lightweight Cobiax system that uses hollow infill balls made of recycled materials that significantly reduced building loads.

The large spans of the lecture hall and the cafeteria were bridged using hunched girders.