New Building

Joint Research under one Roof

Since May 2022, employees have been working at the new Fraunhofer IEE Campus, Joseph-Beuys-Straße 8.
The locations, which were previously located throughout the city, have now been united under one roof.

Desk sharing and remote working from the home office allow the 450 employees to work together flexibly and efficiently in 5,350 m2 of office space, sharing 320 workstations in the new building. In addition, various laboratories are available to the specialist departments in the Technika on 2,150 m2.

Dronenflug-Video über das neue Fraunhofer IEE Campus

Funding

A sustainable energy concept

Investment

around 60 milion Euro
from the German Federal Ministry of Research (BMBF)
and the State of Hesse

Dezentrale
Lüftungsgeräte

4-story
building

about 7,600 square meters
usable space for
about 320 employees

Dezentrale
Lüftungsgeräte

220 kW heat pump as heat generator

Heating and cooling
intelligently combined

The 600 m³ ice storage uses the waste heat from the data center. In the office wing, tempered water flows through the concrete ceilings via a network of pipes. Via heat pumps, this enables cooling in summer and heating in winter.

Peak load boiler
600 kW

For economic reasons, the ice storage is supported by gas condensing boilers during peak load periods.

Decentralized
ventilation units

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Construction Progress

Baufortschritt Neubau Fraunhofer IEE

Pictures of the Construction

A new research and development environment

Next to Kassel's main train station, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is building a new research and development environment for around 320 employees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy Systems Technology IEE. The investment volume of around 60 million euros is being financed in equal parts by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the State of Hesse.

The groundbreaking ceremony in September 2017 marked the official start of the new construction and the premises were initially examined for soil contamination such as remnants of war. The company commissioned with this unexpectedly went bankrupt in the summer of 2018. Due to the need to re-award the contract, there was a shutdown until September 2018. These delays and the Covid pandemic have delayed the completion of the building and the start of operations until early 2022.

In order to provide Fraunhofer with sufficient space for further expansion of the institute, the city of Kassel has developed the former customs site north of the main train station as a construction area.

The new building, designed by architect Günter Schleiff of HHS Planer und Architekten in Kassel, is oriented towards the future in terms of design, building physics and energy, and is intended to promote more direct communication and coordination and collaboration between the scientists.

In addition to offices and seminar rooms, the 4-story building with a usable floor space of around 7,600 square meters will house a large technical center and several specialized laboratories.

With a 220 kW heat pump as a heat generator and a 600 m³ ice storage, a sustainable energy concept is pursued in the new institute building. A gas-fired 600 kW cascade with condensing boilers serves as peak load boiler and redundancy system. Cooling in summer is provided by a centrally controlled concrete core temperature control system fed by ice storage. Decentralized ventilation units supply fresh air.

Katja Davar, Globe of Glass (2022)

Katja Davar's Globe of Glass is a labyrinthine floor mosaic of circles and cuneiform characters - a "walk-in drawing" (K.D.) in which one can playfully move around.