Childcare
Thinking and laughing under one roof
RWTH celebrates the topping-out ceremony for the new daycare center and office building on the Melaten campus with many guests.
It still takes a little imagination to see how special this building will be. On Thursday, the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on the Melaten campus, where RWTH is constructing a daycare center and office building.
The six-story building will be white, with many small windows and completely clad in friendly, light-colored wood on the lower floors. Its location is exceptional, with a sweeping view toward the university hospital, and its construction is equally special: the building is being constructed using a wood hybrid method and meets the latest energy-saving requirements. Hybrid wood means that much more wood has been used than was possible until recently—fire safety reasons previously prevented this, but the material has now advanced to the point where it can be used safely and without hesitation. “This makes it one of the most innovative buildings in North Rhine-Westphalia,” said Professor Burkhard Walter (Walter + Reif Ingenieurgesellschaft), responsible for structural design, structural analysis, and fire safety. Thanks to the intensive use of wood and many other measures – such as the absence of large glass facades – the building is being constructed to the “Efficiency House 40 EE” energy standard, meaning that its energy requirements are only 40 percent of those of a comparable standard house.
“Daycare and office buildings on the Melaten campus – that may sound mundane, but there is a lot of passion behind it,” reported RWTH Rector Professor Ulrich Rüdiger. He still remembers well the childcare options available when he and his wife moved to Aachen in the 1990s, when childcare was self-organized at Annuntiatenbach. Since then, attitudes toward family and career have evolved considerably. “University always means responsibility,” said Professor Rüdiger. There are already five daycare centers for university employees in science, technology, and administration. “We are happy to invest in an appreciative working environment, because it is the people who make RWTH what it is.” Typically, the phase of starting a family coincides with academic qualification. That is why RWTH has long been successfully committed to equal opportunities and the compatibility of work, study, and family, and is a certified family-friendly university.
The building is scheduled for completion in 2027. It will be equipped with a heat pump (powered by sustainable electricity) and photovoltaics on the roof. The first two floors are intended for the daycare center, the centerpiece of which is an “air space” (architect David Koenigsfeld, Heinle Wischer Architects), a kind of atrium inside that connects the two floors and will serve as a central play hall. With around 1,500 square meters of floor space, the daycare center will accommodate 120 children in eight groups. The daycare center will be operated on behalf of RWTH Aachen University by the student union. Its managing director, Sebastian Böstel, is already looking forward to it: “What a great building, we are very much looking forward to operating it soon.” The RWTH geographers will move into the upper four floors with five institutes. They will have 2,500 square meters of floor space at their disposal, and a weather and measuring station on the roof of the building will be a visible sign of the tenants inside. The “exciting mixed use of this striking solitary building” (David Koenigsfeld) was perfectly expressed by the carpenter (Zimmerei Bald) in his speech: “A space for work, where people think, a space for children, where people laugh.”