Construction Kick-off Feringa Building

"A special moment, because after years of preparation, the building will actually be built", says the building's name giver.

Ballast Nedam started the foundation work of the Feringa Building last July. The official start of construction was celebrated with the unveiling of a sand sculpture of the new building and the opening of a public viewpoint on the construction site.

Architecture

The Feringa Building is designed as three connected V-shapes. An attractive, broad walking route runs along the entire facade along the glass façade, which connects all wings and at the same time offers a view of the campus. The ground floor and the first floor together form the "Plint", which also includes the lively atrium, a large covered area suitable for activities and accommodation.
"As designing parties, we are particularly proud of the design for the Feringa Building that we have made together with so many people within the university," said architect Joost Ector. "Despite the complexity of the assignment, which lies among other things in special technical requirements, the Feringa Building is becoming a very natural building in which people and high-quality research can play the leading role together."

Capacity and sustainability

Jasper Knoester, dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, proudly describes the building: "The no less than 260 meters long, 63 meters wide and five storeys high building, will soon provide space for around 1,400 students and 850 employees of our faculty. It will get 3 kilometres of lab tables, 450 fume cupboards and 30 laser labs. These facilities are enormously welcome for our growing faculty."
Hans Biemans, vice-chairman of the Executive Board of the University of Groningen, adds: “With 900 square meters of solar panels and gasless solutions, this building also fits in perfectly with the sustainability agenda of the University of Groningen. At the same time, we as a university endorse our ambition to continuously contribute to important international research areas, such as chemical engineering, nanotechnology, material research and astronomy. ”

12 swimming pools of concrete

Ballast Nedam started the foundation work in July. “We have started drilling foundation piles. The first 150 of the 2,000 piles are already in the ground. We will drill more than 60 kilometres; about 620 times the height of Martini tower," says Edwin de Kuiper of Ballast Nedam. “We use a total of 26,000 cubic meters of concrete for the building. That does indicate the enormity of this construction project."

This is the first of two construction stages in which the Feringa Building will be built and it is expected to be completed in mid-2021. The first research groups of the faculty can then move in. The second construction stage will be realised in 2022-2023.