MVRDV, along with LOLA Landscape Architects and others, has won the competition for a campus focused on artificial intelligence in Heilbronn. The German city will have a striking circular campus with functions companies, laboratories and an innovation center for startups. With the circular master plan, MVRDV wants to position the campus as internationally leading, appropriate for AI technology.
The ambition is to create a campus prestigious enough to compete with world-renowned technology campuses such as Silicon Valley and and those in Shenzhen, MVRDV reports. The circular shape increases the campus' global prominence and makes the site recognizable right down to satellite photos, the firm said.
The basis of the master plan is formed by two green axes bisecting the circle, one of which is a historic Roman path that forms the main north-south route. Surrounding the campus buildings is a path 1.2 kilometers in length. An athletic track, skate park, bleachers and viewpoints of the surrounding area provide a transition to the surrounding landscape and activation of the campus.
Most campus buildings have simple rectangular shapes and are between 27 and 30 meters high. Thanks to their shape, the efficient grid and the use of renewable materials make construction efficient. At the heart of the plan, a number of "specials" stand out, with unique typologies and taller structures that form the campus skyline.
Communication Center
Most striking is the "communications center," a round tower at a central plaza. This tower houses a visitor and training center and can host events, exhibitions and conferences.
Because the campus is compact in shape, it leaves a large area that can be transformed from grassland. With a parametric landscape design by LOLA Architects, the outdoor space will soon be divided into a forest, orchards and experimental gardens for biodiversity and agriculture-related AI technology. Taken together, the natural elements of the master plan will have a significant positive impact on the campus' CO2 emissions, MVRDV promises.
Energy consumption eighty percent lower
During operation, the campus' energy consumption will be about eighty percent lower than that of a campus of similar size, the firm further states. 'Bioclimatic' facades and energy-efficient installations should help make the campus as energy efficient as possible. Renewable energy will be produced with wind turbines and solar panels and then stored using batteries.
In addition, heat and cold storage in the ground will be used. These measures combined with the afforestation of the landscape will make the campus carbon-neutral over its lifetime. The Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence was designed for the Ipai consortium, which consists of the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, the municipality of Heilbronn and the Schwarz Group.
In addition to LOLA, MVRDV partnered with Thornton Tomasetti, Studio Animal-Aided Design, REALACE, Peutz Consult and Gruner Deutschland for the design.
