Life Sciences Campus University of Bayreuth Read more

The challenge with the new satellite campus of the University of Bayreuth was to develop a strong, identity-forming structure that provides a home for domestic and international students and researchers while also serving as a high-quality public recreational space for the city of Kulmbach.
The required functions were distributed across individual buildings embedded in a green space and connected via a central plateau. Complementary fields create transitions to the "wild" nature, stretching from the renaturalized streambed of the Weißer Main to the northern boundary of the site. The five buildings, with varying heights, blend into the organically designed park areas and frame an inviting open space that serves as both a welcoming arrival point and a vibrant center of university life. Additional distinctive spaces emerge along the access road to the north, in the quieter, nature-oriented fields west of the library, and between the research building, the cultivation facility, and the second-phase research facility. Future construction phases can seamlessly integrate into this layout.
The concept of exchange as a decisive driver of research and teaching is reflected in the design of the buildings. Despite differences in their layouts, they follow the same approach: highly equipped, climate-sensitive functions are located in solid core zones, preferably oriented to the north, while communicative, flexibly zoned spaces for working and gathering are arranged in a lightweight skeletal structure. This creates diverse transitional zones between interior and exterior spaces — from passageways to galleries, from enclosed workspaces to plant-filled winter gardens or covered outdoor areas.
Designed as showcases of university life, these buildings face the central outdoor spaces of the campus, infusing them with vitality.