“It is a wonderful day,” said Goethe University President, Enrico Schleif, in light of the opening of two new university buildings on Wednesday. The new building for language and cultural studies on the Westend Campus has been handed over, while a new dormitory with 359 student places and 27 apartments for guest researchers is now available on the Riedberg Campus.
According to Schleif, the transfer of linguistic and cultural sciences is a big step toward completing the Westend Campus. Bringing disciplines together in one area is important because the big questions of our time can only be addressed together. The building should be a “palace of science” that fosters interactions between subjects, and also between science and society.
Good conditions for “small subjects”
Minister of State Aisha Asar (Die Grünen) of the Hesse State Ministry of Science and Arts emphasized the importance of the “small themes” moving into the new building. The community depends on its prospects, which is why the good conditions for research and teaching in the new building are satisfactory. Hesse State Finance Minister Michael Budenberg (CDU) said he is committed to promoting science because it is important to society. He highlighted the fact that the costs of the third construction phase of the Westend campus – around 120 million euros – were only 13 percent higher than the plan as a “great achievement”.
Planning and construction took nearly seven years, but completion was in the “academic quarter” despite the coronavirus pandemic and supply bottlenecks for building materials, according to Shlev. Architect Lutz-Matthias Kessling of BLK2 office said construction has not been halted due to these difficulties. He also highlighted the sustainability of the building. From the beginning, the university has demanded high energy efficiency and largely natural ventilation. The building also has a heating connection and a green roof. PV systems should be built there – only after completion, because there are subsidies only for existing buildings.
The new home for Languages and Cultural Studies also houses 12 branch subject libraries, a cafeteria, and a student union. Thanks to the automatically closing door, the library’s workstations can be used until 10pm during the week without the presence of staff.
University housing is designed to bring students and researchers together
According to Shalev, there is more to studying than attending lectures and learning. The study is above all an exchange with other researchers. Therefore, the new student housing with integrated apartments for international visiting scholars on the Rydberg campus should not only provide affordable living space, but also provide the opportunity for students and researchers to work together. In addition to apartments, common rooms for students, and housing units for guest researchers, it contains a fitness room, study rooms, sewing room, cinema room, and a roof garden. Rooms cost between 350 and 420 euros per month. The house will be operated in a climate-friendly manner thanks to the photovoltaic system, passive house construction and 2,900 m3 of fir wood.
Shared rooms in Frankfurt cost an average of 580 euros
Everyone present at the opening ceremony assured that affordable housing for students in Frankfurt is scarce. Tim Hope, a housing officer at AStA at Goethe University, noted that the average cost of a common room in the city is €580. This semester, there are more than 3,000 people looking for accommodation on the Studentenwerk waiting list. Even with the new building, there is room for only six percent of Frankfurt students in the residence hall, so in order to meet the state government’s 10 percent target, ten more buildings must be built like the one just opened.
Schleif Wassar and Frankfurt Head of Planning Mike Joseph (SPD) see a potential blueprint for more projects in the new building. According to Asar, there are another 1,800 dormitories currently planned or under construction across the state of Hesse.
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