OECONOMICUM Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

The 'Oeconomicum' is the new location of the Faculty of Economics of the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and was financed by the Schwarz-Schütte Förderstiftung.

The main focus of the exterior design was both the integration of the building into the park-like character of the university grounds and the traffic access for pedestrians, cyclists and cars.

When planning the building, great importance was attached to keeping the encroachment on the existing green structures to a minimum. For this reason, a landscape conservation plan was drawn up in the course of planning the outdoor facilities, which, after mapping the regional flora and fauna, specified the compensatory measures in the immediate vicinity of the existing university lake according to ecological aspects.

The design of the outdoor facilities was cleverly linked to the ecological specifications and thus manages to free the building, which is reminiscent of a UFO according to the idea of Christoph Ingenhoven, as a solitaire, but at the same time to integrate it into the park-like campus environment.

The new building of the 'Oeconomicum' is the new location of the Faculty of Economics of the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. It was financed by the Schwarz-Schütte Förderstiftung. The building is located in the middle of the campus grounds designed in the 1970s by landscape architect Georg Penker. The elevated building looks - according to the idea of architect Christoph Ingenhoven - like a UFO that has just landed on the edge of the university lake.

The main focus of the exterior design was both the integration of the building into the park-like character of the university grounds, as well as the accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and cars.

Although great importance was attached to keeping the encroachment on the existing green structures to a minimum during the planning of the building, an accompanying landscape conservation plan was drawn up in the course of the planning of the outdoor facilities, which, following a mapping of the regional flora and fauna, specified the compensatory measures in the immediate vicinity of the existing wetland biotope according to ecological aspects.

So belonged to the formative measures a new modelling and fortification of the lakeshore area with armourstones with retreat possibility for amphibians, a widening of the reed zone in the area of the free-floating wooden terrace, as well as a clearing of bushy tree and shrub existence, in order to be able to produce transparency and new sight relations on the area. Furthermore, the existing park character was restored through a tree and compensation planting oriented to the existing stock and the lawns were topographically adapted to the originally hilly terrain.

Through a sensitive handling of the existing square and path areas made of clinker, which were planned at the time by Georg Penker, could be created with his consent, especially in the redesign of the water cascade, a homogeneous transition from 'old to new'.

The representative forecourt in front of the main entrance of the 'Oeconomicum' is the new, central point in the Magistrale to the various faculties and the library and now invites not only the students and professors, but also walkers and passers-by to linger on the publicly accessible sun terrace above the shore of the university lake.