The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) is investing a lot of money in order to create the best possible learning and working environment for students and employees.

The rented store in the Behnisch-Haus in Krefeld's city center was renovated at a cost of around 650,000 euros. Since the beginning of last year, the former Bistro Schlösser premises have been converted into the Future Work Lab - a real laboratory of The Hochschule Niederrhein that will serve as a working and meeting space for employees, students and partners of the university. In future, events will be held there, students will be able to use the rooms for studying and lecturers for seminars or meetings. The university administration would also like to set up workstations there. "The remaining work on the locking systems for the doors and the equipment for the learning and work spaces is currently underway," says university architect Philipp Webels. The façade will be wrapped at the beginning of January. The official opening ceremony is planned for the end of February 2024.

With the establishment of the Future Work Lab, the university wants to move into the city center. This means that interested citizens do not have to travel to the locations in Krefeld or Mönchengladbach.

The new Chemistry Technology Center building on Krefeld West Campus between Frankenring and Adlerstraße is on the home straight. A new three-storey building with state-of-the-art laboratories has been under construction here since June 2022 at a cost of 25 million euros. Remaining work is currently still underway in the laboratories on the upper floor. The building is 90 percent complete.

The pedestrian boulevard, which will connect the existing chemistry complex on Adlerstrasse with the new building and the rest of the campus, is also complete. The new building, for which the state of NRW is contributing seven million euros, should be ready for use in January. According to site manager Lukas Leuchter, the work is still right on schedule.

Faculty of Mechanical and Process Engineering modernized

The Faculty of Mechanical and Process Engineering at Krefeld South Campus has undergone a complete modernization. For around 1.5 million euros, new learning environments were created on the 4th and 5th floors and seminar and teaching rooms were spruced up: New floors, new paint, fiber optic cables for super-fast Internet, LED lighting, soundproofing, state-of-the-art media technology and IT. Uniform furnishings, which can be individually adjusted depending on the size of the group thanks to castors, complete the picture. The laboratory for sustainable product development has also been redesigned.

This cost the university 900,000 euros, with the remaining 600,000 euros coming from the Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb (BLB) NRW. Many of the ideas for the modernization also came directly from the students.

Building K on the Mönchengladbach campus, which was once the goods inspection office for the textile industry, was officially opened in July. The furnishings and fittings are currently in the final stages. Within two years, the SU has gutted the 750 square meter, three-storey listed building, renovated the interior fittings and technology, including LED lighting and a ventilation system, and added a stair tower and elevator.

In future, the building will house the university's Start Up Lab, Student Services, parts of the university administration and the Examinations Office. The university contributed 1.8 million euros to the construction costs.

Big change in Mönchengladbach

A lot will be happening right next door from 2024: A new hall for textile finishing will be built on Rheydter Straße as a replacement building for the Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology. This will close the gap between the now modernized Building K and Building O, which houses the Faculty of Food and Nutrition Sciences.

The core refurbishment of the spinning mill on Webschulstraße will begin at the end of 2025. In addition to a large hall for the spinning machines, modern seminar rooms for the textile designers will also be created in the listed building complex. Once the renovated building has been handed over in mid-2027, particularly dilapidated sections of the current textile halls will be demolished to make way for a newly designed campus landscape.

Here too, the BLB is providing the lion's share, while the HSNR is contributing around 11 percent of the total sum, i.e. 4 million euros for both projects.