A circular area with a diameter of 94 meters, cordoned off with tape, on a meadow in Brainergy Park Jülich: this is currently all that can be seen of the Brainergy Hub. However, the first phase of construction for the building has been completed: just before the end of 2022, the funding application for the construction of the circular Brainergy Hub was submitted to the Cologne District Government.
The Brainergy Hub is a place for communication and exchange. Here, innovations are to be developed in a creative environment,’ said Franziska Fassbender, responsible for architecture and construction management at Brainergy Park GmbH. ‘As you can see, the heart of Brainergy Park will be round,’ Frank Drewes once stated.
n the competition, the planning team led by the architecture firm Henn from Berlin impressed, having enlisted Latz + Partner from Kranzberg for landscape planning and Happold GmbH from Berlin for technical equipment. They designed the hub as a circular building.
The planners have designed flexible conference areas and office spaces over three floors that can be ‘occupied’ by users without predefined limitations. This creates many informal opportunities for exchange, and ‘the world of work is connected with residential quality,’ as stated by presenter Andrea Georgi Tomas. The award-winning designs also fulfill the requirement of ‘sustainability’: the circular building generates energy not only from solar roof panels but also through its facade. Consideration was given to the cardinal directions and expected sunlight: the window proportions were optimized and shading elements adjusted. Marcin Kropidlo, project manager at the Henn Design Studio Berlin, expressed it this way: ‘The circle is directionless and always the same. It is a democratic form that never turns its back on the surrounding buildings.’ The award-winning firm Henn is well-known in the region. It has already submitted plans for the ‘Production Technology’ organizational unit at the RWTH campus in Aachen and the new heart center at Aachen University Hospital.
