An additional retreat in the middle of the campus and a clock tower with a glass dome that can be used as an observatory: These are two new additions worth seeing that teachers, students and guests of the Darmstadt University can look forward to.
Last week, the two flagship locations were officially taken over with a small celebration hosted by Chancellor Manfred Efinger.
Markus Schug
Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.
Follow I follow
In particular, the eastern inner courtyard of the old main building on Hochschulstraße, which was redesigned for around 1.1 million euros, could quickly prove itself in the upcoming third Corona summer: because the area, which is barrier-free and can be reached via the reading courtyard of the university and state library, is ideal with tables, wooden benches and pedestals as an open-air workplace.
Visitors can choose whether to sit in the sun garden on the south side of the courtyard or in the shade garden created opposite.
At the center of the entire ensemble is the work of art "Spatial Movement", which was made from a single tree trunk by the Freiburg sculptor Carl Walter Loth and at the request of the Technical University.
Images can also be called up live in the lecture halls
It stands on a square surrounded by old brick walls, which in future will stand for "sustainability, nature and art" and which is deliberately intended as a quiet room on an otherwise lively campus.
Not far away, the university has another outstanding place with the almost 25 meter high clock tower.
The building, which has since been modernized and equipped with a glass dome, was built in 1904 according to the plans of the architect Friedrich Pützer;
after the Darmstadt fire in 1944, only a stump remained, which has only now been raised to the pre-war level for around 800,000 euros according to the plans of the Fulda architects Sichau & Walter.
On the very spot where there used to be a transmission station for communications technology, there are now four telescopes in a glass block that is open at the top and can be discreetly illuminated at night.
They are the heart of the tower observatory operated by the physics department.
Since the images to be captured by remote control can be called up live on the Internet and also in the lecture halls, no one has to go to the trouble of climbing to the top of the clock tower when it comes to observing the sun or the starry night sky from Darmstadt.