Vehicle Technology Laboratory, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences

Nickl & Partner Architekten AG

The new vehicle technology faculty laboratory building is a simple monolithic cube at the southern entrance to Wolfsburg’s modern town-centre business district. It fits neatly into its urban context and serves as a distinctive trademark for the area, a compact building that meets the functional and aesthetic requirements of a high-tech research facility.

The interior is clearly laid out. The entrance is transparent and open-plan, emphasising its public role, and the research hall forms the core of the building, with the laboratories and other rooms grouped around it. The workshops, laboratories and connecting galleries are modular, for maximum flexibility, and the upper storeys have a direct view of the research hall to encourage interaction between users of the building.