Alice Salomon University celebrates topping-out ceremony

Brain City Berlin

In September 2021, ground was broken for the new extension building of ASH Berlin, which will create urgently needed space for around 1,700 students and a new refectory. The topping-out ceremony for the shell was held on Wednesday. Now work on the interior will begin. The building is scheduled for completion in summer 2024.

Just a few hundred metres from the main building of the Alice Salomon University in Marzahn-Hellersdorf, a five-storey extension is currently being built. A striking feature: a curved high-rise tower rising from it with a total of ten storeys and a total height of 39 metres.

The topping-out ceremony for the new university building on Kokoschkaplatz was celebrated on Wednesday. This means that the shell and roof trusses are finished and the construction measures are moving to the next phase: the outer facade of the clearly structured building will be closed and the interior work can begin. The new university building will have an area of around 42,500 cubic metres. Plenty of space for seminar rooms, exercise and physiotherapy rooms, a children’s area, skills labs, offices and a theatre seminar room on the tenth floor. A refectory and kitchen will move into the ground floor. Up to 1,700 students and 100 teaching, research and administrative staff will study, teach, research and work in offices here in the future.

Prof. Dr. Bettina Völter, Rector of ASH Berlin, described the topping-out ceremony as a milestone: “The years of effort to find a building that meets the increased demands of teaching and research in the what in German are known as the “SAGE” subjects (Social Work, Health, Education and Training) as well as the enormous growth of the university are now clearly visible.” And as Ulrike Gote, the former Senator for Science, Health and Care pointed out, the new building will be a place where people can continue Alice Salomon’s humanitarian work. “The extension once again underlines the lighthouse character of the largest State so-called SAGE university in Germany,” said the senator.

Externally, the new building reflects Berlin’s commercial buildings from the years of rapid industrial expansion. Large windows and a pillar-like structure emphasize its architectural character as a place of teaching and learning. Inside, it is simple and clear – with numerous self-learning areas. Recreation is not neglected either: Areas for exchange and relaxation are provided by a break area, a grove of trees in the open spaces around the building and a roof garden.

The construction is expected to cost around 40 million Euro in total. 11.8 million Euro of this will be funded by the Alice Salomon University Berlin. According to current planning, the new building should be ready in the summer of 2024. Together with the main building on Alice-Salomon-Platz, the Kinderforscher*zentrum Helleum, the Interfix-Café on the other side of the subway and other areas rented by ASH Berlin on Fritz-Lang-Platz, it will complete a campus that will make science visible in the district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf. (vdo)