Staab Architekten

Institute of Digital Media Technology, Ilmenau

2006 – 2008

The goal of the design was to find a formal counterpart for the new institute and its thematic content which would enable the building's exterior to convey an impressive documentation of the innovative character of the research conducted inside the building. In a similar way to today's media appliances, in which a complex interior is housed in a formally abstracted exterior, in this building an interior organisation based on the functional requirements of the building is enclosed in an abstract translucent skin of plastic elements reinforced with glass fibre. The opaque facade elements allow the solid structure to show through the facade, depending on the way the light falls on the building, thus giving the facade a sense of depth and lightness at the same time.
The horizontally aligned two-story solitary building varies in its organisational structure in that some parts have one row of functional rooms, others have two with a central corridor. The building has four accessible inner courtyards which enable daylight to reach the interior of the sequences of rooms. The special acoustic rooms are arranged in a cross-like pattern around the foyer, and their closed facade surfaces face the inner courtyards.

»eins zu eins – Ausgezeichete Bauten in Thüringen 2011« BDA Thüringen, Anerkennung

Negotiated procedure Top rank 2006

Client Fraunhofer Gesellschaft

Start of planning – completion 2006 – 2008

For performance phases 1 – 8

Total costs €17.1m

Usable floor area 2,950 sqm

Design team Thomas Schmidt (project management), Florian Nusser, Tanja Klein, Kiri Westphal | Construction management Michael Schmid (site supervision), Manuela Jochheim | Jens Helmich, Jan Weyh (Site supervision)

Landscape architects Levin Monsigny, Berlin

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