SHS subsidiary LEG Service was responsible for project management and health & safety coordination in creating a new innovation centre for the university in Saarbrücken. Once again, one of SHS’s subsidiaries has contributed its expertise to implementing pioneering projects in Saarland – as also happens here on the university campus.
The recently completed Innovation Center opposite the >> Science Park Saar was officially opened on 25 April. This represents a significant step forward for technology transfer, offering students, researchers, prospective start-up founders and businesses an interdisciplinary space where they can benefit from creative exchange and networking, develop new ideas, and translate them into initial prototypes.
The perfect place
The building backs on to Stuhlsatzenhausweg. This is an ideal location as it is also home to other non-university research institutions on campus, such as the Helmholtz Center for Information Security (CISPA) or the KIST building with its guest house. SHS Strukturholding Saar was also heavily involved in their structural development and expansion.
Ideal conditions
This building with outer dimensions of 48m x 18m comprises four floors, offering researchers, prospective start-up founders and regional companies the perfect space and resources for lively exchange, activities and events. Interdisciplinary working groups here can develop their ideas and prototypes in a special creative laboratory. Space has been made for around 100 workstations.
The generous, bright entrance area with its western door and south-facing entrance towards the black ‘torque’ sculpture is designed for communication and open activities.
The spacious ground floor forms the heart of the building: it offers plenty of scope to showcase scientific exhibits, as well as freely available workrooms, and feeds into a large, open staircase system known as the ‘seating stairs’. A large window wall stretches up to the first floor.
The room structure on the second floor is flexible and can be adapted to suit users’ needs. It offers space for the activities of budding young companies in the market entry phase, and application-oriented project groups from the world of research.
The top floor boasts a conference and training centre with multifunctional rooms, able to host more than 200 people. The roof terrace with its lounge bathed in light is designed to be used for a wide range of event formats, both inside and outside. There are impressive views of the surrounding rooftops and the green landscape around the campus to be enjoyed.
The Innovation Center, constructed in just three years, has an aluminium and steel façade that fits in perfectly with the nearby Science Park. It was financed with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the state. The total cost of the new building, including initial installations, was around 21 million euros.
