Darmstadtium (congress center)
The Darmstadtium ( proper spelling darmstadtium ) is a science and congress center (WKZ) in the center of the science city Darmstadt . The naming - proposed in a competition by Peter Strehl and Christian Dindorf - was inspired by the name Darmstadtium , which a chemical element discovered in Darmstadt in 1994 was awarded in 2003. This connection to science and at the same time as a name for a house seemed ideal for the congress center to the then mayor Peter Benz .
use
The Darmstadtium is suitable for international congresses and conferences. At the same time, the house offers the framework for company and product presentations, representative receptions, trade fairs, cultural and concert events and other events.
The Darmstadtium is conveniently located in Darmstadt and only a few steps away from the city center. On 18,000 square meters there is a multifunctional, barrier-free space: 21 flexibly combinable seminar and conference rooms for a total of up to 1300 people, a two or three-way divisible large hall and a smaller congress hall with the latest communication and conference technology, as well as light-flooded foyer areas for accompanying exhibitions . The 1,300 m 2 main hall (divisible) offers 1,677 seats in rows, the smaller hall has 650 m² of space for up to 383 people. The CALLA restaurant has space for 80 people and a café for 50 people. The Darmstadtium also has a roof terrace with space for 200 guests and an in-house underground car park with 454 parking spaces (with an additional 2,000 garage spaces).
As the congress center of the city of Darmstadt, the Darmstadtium is linked to science in many respects - not only its own name comes from the periodic table, but the names of the rooms are mostly chemical elements, such as helium , palladium and xenon (separate spellings of the room names small).
IT infrastructure
The congress center in Darmstadt provides a house-wide network technology that is otherwise only maintained by large suppliers. Thanks to the cooperation with the TU Darmstadt, an internet connection with up to 10 gigabits is possible. In addition, a high-performance internal 10 Gbit / s backbone is operated to ensure extreme failure safety. The house has 80 access points for wireless internet use (WLAN). At the end of 2013 the WLAN infrastructure was modernized and expanded to the ac standard adopted in September 2013. Wireless transmission rates of up to 600 Mbit / s will then be possible for the first time in a congress center. Up to 3,000 visitors can work online at top speed on their laptop at the same time. Everyone then has a permanent data rate of five megabits per second available. This connection quality also applies to uploads: Live broadcasts can be accessed worldwide in real time from the Darmstadtium. A unique selling point of the data connection in Europe is the direct connectivity to the most important nodes like DE-CIX (world's largest node) and AMS-IX (largest transatlantic transfer point). In addition, in 2017 “Wave 2”, the second stage of the ac standard, was upgraded. Since September 2013, an unprecedented, comprehensive, first-class coverage of the services GSM, UMTS and what is currently the fastest mobile service LTE has been developed using the existing in-house cellular network. These cutting-edge technologies are achieved at darmstadtium through close cooperation with leading companies in the IT sector worldwide.
In 2014, the Darmstadtium received the first INCON Digital Infrastructure Award for its first-class digital infrastructure. Different venues around the world competed - for the jury, darmstadtium was at the top of the international league ahead of Melbourne and Amsterdam thanks to its first-class infrastructure and continuous further development and improvement.
sustainability
With appropriate architectural solutions and extensive use of geothermal energy, solar energy and biomass as well as the purchase of green electricity, the Darmstadtium achieves an almost complete supply of the building through renewable energies. Special contracts with Deutsche Bahn also enable CO 2 -neutral travel. The building is "Green Globe" certified. The congress center is thus committed to an environmentally and socially responsible economic approach. “Green Globe” requirements include energy efficiency, the purchase of regional products and services, employee training on ecological issues and consideration of women and minorities in management positions. There is a climate partnership with the electricity provider Entega. EMAS Plus certification is planned.
In addition, the Darmstadtium is the first DGNB -certified, sustainable congress center in Germany. The Darmstadtium supports the “fair-obligated” campaign by the GCB and EVVC and follows the principles of “sustainable entrepreneurs”. The unavoidable CO 2 emissions are also offset by the local green electricity provider Entega. The Darmstadtium takes responsibility and offsets all stationary CO 2 emissions of the congress center. In 2014, the Darmstadt Congress Center also received first prize in the “Office and Environment” competition (category up to 500 employees). The focus of the competition of the Federal German Working Group for Environmentally Conscious Management (BAUM eV) is the careful use of resources in everyday office life and the consideration of environmental aspects in the procurement of office products.
construction
The building was designed by the Viennese architect Talik Chalabi . The Darmstadtium is built by the city and the Technical University of Darmstadt . On December 6, 2007, the new building to the east of Darmstadt Castle was opened after almost three years of construction. The building ( neo-constructivism ) consists of four nested building parts that hardly have any right angles. For this reason, the Darmstadtium quickly received the nickname "Schepp Schachtel" (= crooked box) from the people of Darmstadt. The outer facade is characterized by largely sloping and tapering glass surfaces. The total area of the building is 18,000 m 2 . The congress building has a gross volume of around 110,000 m 3 , the two-storey underground car park around 45,000 m 3 . 43,000 m 3 of concrete and 7,300 t of steel were used. During the long construction period, the Darmstadtium was Hesse's largest public construction site. The excavation pit was 16 meters deep. Around 180,000 m 3 of earth were excavated from it.
During the construction work, parts of a historic fortified tower were discovered in the west . Like parts of the medieval city wall, this was integrated into the Darmstadtium and is intended to create a contrast to modern architecture. The city wall can be seen not only in the foyer, but also in individual conference rooms.
The Darmstadtium has been under construction again since 2013: The growing need for event rooms means that the previously unused “Small Hall” is needed. As the 26th hall, the Small Hall also fits into the series of rooms in the Darmstadtium named after chemical elements and is named after the 26th element in the periodic table : ferrum ( iron ). Since December 2014 ferrum has been available as an additional event room with mostly fixed seating and its own foyer area. It offers space for up to 390 people on 650 m² in inclined cinema seating with a foldable business table. This makes it “in between” - the conference rooms can hold a maximum of 300 people, the large congress hall up to 1,677.
costs
The construction costs were borne in full by the city of Darmstadt, the state of Hesse provided the property, and the Technical University of Darmstadt assumed an occupancy guarantee for a certain quota. The final account of the construction costs from September 2010 shows an amount of 90.5 million euros, compared to the originally estimated 77 million euros. This sum did not include the interior fittings and the costs for the completion of a small hall for use for parallel events in the large hall.
Regarding the running costs, Mayor Walter Hoffmann explained shortly before the inauguration in December 2007 that an annual operating deficit of between 2.3 and 3.5 million euros was "politically wanted".
Since January 1, 2011, Lars Wöhler has been appointed as the new managing director, whose declared aim is to improve cooperation with research - especially TU Darmstadt - and companies ( key account management ). The hoped-for increase in sales should limit the required subsidy for operating costs to 1.2 million euros. In 2014, sales of over 4 million euros were recorded for the first time, and the operating cost subsidy is steadily being reduced.
In 2014, the Darmstadtium was finally completed with the expansion of the small hall. The total construction costs are finally 93.5 million euros (extension of the small hall under 4 million euros).
In 2018, the Darmstadtium reported a further increase in sales for 2017 and a balanced operating result for the first time. Almost 5.5 million euros in sales were achieved, and thanks to the positive development, a consolidation contribution of 350,000 euros was made to the city of Darmstadt in 2017 to support its overall economic situation.
criticism
The congress center is controversial in Darmstadt because of the construction and follow-up costs. It will not be able to break even in the medium term. The Taxpayers Association criticized in 2008 lack of cost control in his black book. The opening before the completion of all construction work also led to occasional event cancellations and complaints from artists about the construction site conditions. Helge Schneider postponed an appearance at short notice during the construction work, but made up for this date ten months later.
Varia
The restored original Darmstadtia is located in the congress center .
Since 2018, there have been information boards on the A67 and A5 motorways near the Darmstädter Kreuz junction with a picture of the Darmstadtium Congress Center and a representation of the Darmstadtium element discovered at the GSI Helmholtz Center in Darmstadt .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Calla Restaurant
- ↑ INCON Award 2014 . INCON PCO. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
- ^ Green Globe Member List. Green Globe Certification, accessed March 11, 2012 .
- ↑ First DGNB-certified, sustainable congress center. EVVC, accessed March 20, 2017 .
- ↑ Sustainability code of the German-speaking event industry. In: fairpflichtung.de. Retrieved April 4, 2013 .
- ↑ Climate-friendly conference location. In: cebra.biz. Retrieved December 4, 2014 .
- ↑ Small hall in the Darmstadtium offers great potential. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: echo-online.de , accessed on January 16, 2011
- ↑ The deficit was "politically wanted". In: Darmstädter Echo , December 3, 2007 ( Memento from February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ A year marked by growth. In: Darmstadtium.de , December 11, 2014
- ↑ Operating result balanced for the first time in 2017 In: Darmstadtium.de , May 17, 2018
- ↑ Darmstadt Science and Congress Center. ( Memento of October 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Black Book 2008
- ^ The concert in Darmstadt was moved to November 4, 2008. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008 ; Retrieved May 12, 2012 .
Coordinates: 49 ° 52 ′ 27 ″ N , 8 ° 39 ′ 24 ″ E