Biologicum of the Goethe University

The new teaching and research building offers space for 1,400 students and 150 academic staff. The Biologicum houses lecture halls, laboratories, an adjoining animal house, a spacious cafeteria and a large number of practical and seminar rooms. In a comb structure opening to the west, the 4 institute sections are connected by a 130 m long main corridor. At the backbone of the main axis is an animal house designed to accommodate numerous species. The Cluster of Excellence adjoins the Biologicum to the south as a solitary, cuboidal structure. The two buildings are connected by a glass bridge.

In accordance with the usage requirements, the lecture halls and seminar rooms are planned without columns and are housed on the first floor in line with the optimized building structure and good accessibility. With a floor height of just 3.88 m, the resulting large ceiling spans are a challenge for the structural design. A prestressed flat ceiling only 28 cm thick was used. In the large seminar rooms, the column loads from 4 storeys are supported by a 2x 15 m wide flat slab. The prestressing steps were aligned in such a way that the intercepting ceiling transfers the loads almost without deformation. The striking canopy above the entrance area with a cantilever of more than 8 m was made to "float" with a prestressed flat slab only 32 cm thick.

Panel sizes of 30^m2 were used for the exposed brick-red concrete façade - both for transport and assembly, as well as for the anchoring technology at the limits of the standardized prefabricated construction method. The views from the very long and narrow main corridor are mostly oblique. A conventional façade construction with mullions and transoms was not an option for an unobstructed view. A 400^m2 tension cable façade was developed for this purpose.
The few, very slender cables allow an almost unrestricted view.