KIT Learning and Application Centre, Karlsruhe

The new KIT Learning and Application Centre combines workshops, flexible workspaces, and communication and project rooms into a versatile space for learning, exchange, and project work. Students from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and information technology work together here—across faculties, in a hands-on and project-oriented manner. Situated at the junction between the southern KIT campus and the perimeter block development of Karlsruhe’s “Dörfle,” the new building is positioned between the striking KIT high-rise and the Carl Benz lecture hall building. The new centre maintains a respectful distance from its immediate neighbors, ensuring natural lighting and reinforcing the individual buildings’ distinct identities. While the low-rise workshop building to the south gently leans against the lecture hall building, the five-story main building stands as a distinct, freestanding structure within the urban space. This creates an ensemble of old and new buildings that frames the street space while simultaneously making the identity of the individual structures clearly discernible.

Access to all buildings in the ensemble is provided via the entrances of the existing structures as well as through the gaps between the old and new buildings. A shared ground-floor level connects the new building with its immediate neighbors. A central core houses the elevator, stairwells, and technical infrastructure, serving as the building’s quiet backbone. On the ground floor, this core divides the building into two areas: to the north is a 275-seat lecture hall, and to the south is a multifunctional space for work and interaction. The workshop, housed in the low-rise section, extends over two stories with a gallery and offers industrial-grade machining capabilities. On the upper floors, work, communication, and project rooms occupy most of the space. Partition walls and curtains subdivide the open-plan space and create an industrial character that underscores the building’s adaptability to changing requirements.

Exposed concrete, aluminum, and glass define its appearance. The building was designed as a reinforced concrete skeleton structure with precast columns, perimeter beams, and prestressed TT slabs. The elements were assembled floor by floor and precisely connected to one another, while a central stairwell made of cast-in-place concrete provides the necessary bracing. The façade, consisting of curtain-walled, core-insulated precast concrete elements, reflects the interior structure outward. The large glass surfaces between the concrete elements allow a view into the interior and make project work, workshop activities, and everyday life within the building part of the streetscape. On the upper floors, the windows are floor-to-ceiling aluminum lift-and-slide systems; interior fall protection and full-surface textile sunshades create a serene facade appearance. Inside, oak parquet flooring provides a warm counterpoint to the building’s technical austerity. The compact design, a highly insulated envelope, and the consistent avoidance of thermal bridges reduce primary energy demand to approximately 30 kWh/m²a—meeting the Passive House standard. A combined supply and exhaust air unit with a double heat exchanger and adiabatic cooling, as well as a 50 kWp photovoltaic system on the roof, complement the connection to the district heating network.

The ew KIT Learning and Application Centre is more than just a classroom building. Here, the full potential of a university is on display: open, application-oriented, and inextricably intertwined with the city.

Client: Vermögen & Bau BW, Karlsruhe
Planning and construction: 2018-26
GFA and GV: 5.420 m², 22.940 m³

Competition 2018, 1st prize
best architects 27 award

Photographs: Brigida González, Stuttgart