University’s Bundesstraße Campus on the Home Stretch
After delays and cost increases, the end is finally in sight for the new buildings on the Bundesstraße university campus: There is now a clear timeframe for completion not only for the MIN Forum and the informatics building, but also for the House of the Earth, with the House of the Earth building scheduled for handover in summer 2026.
From handover, the university can start using offices and seminar rooms. The more technically demanding laboratories in the western part of the building will be gradually put into operation from Winter Semester 2026/27 after individual commissioning with the respective institutes.
In spring 2024, water damage in the basement caused a significant delay in the completion of the otherwise almost finished construction work. In the meantime, an expert opinion has established that the water ingress had several causes. The cost of the damage cannot yet be finally quantified. The municipal real estate company GMH | Gebäudemanagement Hamburg, which is responsible for implementation, has already allocated around 60 million euros in its 2024 annual financial statements to cover any additional costs arising from the water damage.
In order to keep the costs for taxpayers as low as possible, GMH, which is part of the Ministry of Finance, is also considering legal action against companies involved in the construction work. Legal assessment of the available expert opinions is currently underway to identify any claims for damages.
Senator for Finance Dr. Andreas Dressel: “The major House of the Earth project on the Bundesstraße marks the end of a long, painful, and challenging construction process. The absolute focus is now on final completion and handover. However, we are also examining the reports and taking legal action to minimize the damage caused to taxpayers. In good news, on the other side of the road, it looks like the MIN Forum will go into operation before then. We are reviewing these two projects for lessons learned for the construction of future buildings for academia and research. Over the next few decades, more than six billion euros will be invested in the academic research and science sector, for refurbishing existing buildings and, if necessary, in new buildings for Hamburg’s universities. We are tackling this enormous task. The additional infrastructure funds available to the federal states and therefore also to the City of Hamburg via the federal government will also help us here. What is clear: As with our successful school constructions, in future we will also increasingly rely on standardized and flexible construction solutions for academic and scientific research buildings wherever possible.”
Senator for science, research and equality, Maryam Blumenthal: “The House of the Earth is the finalization of a project geared towards the special requirements of state-of-the-art climate research and geosciences, providing a new home for outstanding scientific research covering over 22,000 square meters. I am very pleased that, after many setbacks, the building can be handed over to the University of Hamburg in 2026. With the completion of the House of the Earth and the MIN Forum as well as the new building for computer science, we are creating 3 new university buildings for researchers, university staff and our students, in which they will be able to work under ideal conditions to answer the big questions of our time, another milestone for us as a place of research and education.”
The House of the Earth
The Department of Earth System Sciences and the Institute of Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries Sciences from the Department of Biology will move into the House of the Earth. The Earth and Society Research Hub will also be established, in which natural sciences, economics, and social sciences will jointly investigate the consequences of climate change and into which the Cluster of Excellence Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS) will be integrated.
Together with the neighboring Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the German Climate Computing Center, this will create an internationally visible research location. Construction work began in 2015 and, like everywhere else in the construction industry, there were delays due to external influences such as the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as well as faulty planning in the early stages. In spring 2024, a considerable water leak damaged central technical systems such as the sprinkler system, central sanitary facilities, and cooling systems in the basement.
Among other things, the floor and underlying structures in the areas affected by the water damage had to be removed. The expert reports are now available. The investigations revealed that several causes were responsible for the water damage. These damages have now been repaired so that no further water can penetrate. In some areas, fit-out has been postponed for the time being as the area needs to be repaired/renovated first. In the meantime, the technical expansion of the operational areas of the technical centers has been resumed at full speed.
MIN Forum and informatics building
The MIN Forum and the new informatics building will add two new buildings to the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences (MIN) by 2026. They are planned to provide lecture halls, seminar rooms, a library and a canteen. The Department of Computer Science, which is currently still based in Stellingen, will also move to the Bundesstraße campus once the construction work is complete, in order to reintegrate the cross-cutting discipline at the Eimsbüttel site.
A shared basement connects the two parts of the building. The data center of the University of Hamburg’s Regional Computing Center (RRZ) will be located in one part of the building. The two parts of the building have 7 and 11 storeys respectively. It is a complex construction project, because with this height and intended use, both the structural requirements for a high-rise building and an assembly point had to be taken into account. The two parts of the building have a total floor space of around 18,000 square meters (or 30,500 square meters of rental space).
The building is characterized by many glass surfaces for transparency to the outdoor space and integration of the neighboring public. Residents can also use the canteen for inexpensive meals. The foyers in particular have created bright, inviting spaces. The University is equipping the building with modern media technology. The buildings also house a sound laboratory and a virtual reality laboratory (for details, contact the University of Hamburg). Construction of the two buildings began in 2019, with the technical center for the entire Department of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg, which is located on the site of the current MIN Forum, having already been relocated to a new underground building.