Real-estate development at the HSG

27 February 2014. Ever since the campus on the Rosenberg was inaugurated in the 1960s, the available space has always lagged behind actual requirements. At present, campus capacity runs to 5,500 students. The Tellstrasse 2 property near the railway station, which was brought into service at the beginning of Autumn Semester 2013, and the provisional premises opened for Spring Semester 2014, the so-called Teaching Pavilion on the campus, significantly help to improve teaching operations. With the consolidation and concentration of properties, the HSG is pursuing the short- and medium-term objective of making university activities as efficient as possible.

Quality ensured thanks to provisional premises

At the media conference of 27 February 2014, President Thomas Bieger reminded those present that after the teacher/student ratios were stabilised, students’ most urgent problem was constituted by the shortage of space. With the measures that have been realised– the operationalisation of Tellstrasse 2 and the new Teaching Pavilion on the campus – there are now sufficient classrooms for the more than 7,600 students. With the extension of the infrastructure, the University also has also honoured a promise made to students in the course of the discussion about the increase in tuition fees.

15-minute radius and teaching closely related to research

Executive Director Markus Brönnimann presented the HSG’s real-estate development in the new Teaching Pavilion. He highlighted the following central framework conditions for University properties:

• Teaching and research have to be situated close to each other to enable a transfer of knowledge.
• The distances between premises should be within a 15-minute radius. In this time, which is geared to lecture and break times, students should be able to move from one classroom to another.
• Big lecture rooms are subject to special structural requirements and are hardly on offer on the free market.

Three rental properties released

At present, the HSG is bridging the space gap with rented properties on the Rosenberg, some of them at a distance from the campus. The aim of using fewer but larger properties signals a change of direction. The quarter can be relieved, and operations and maintenance become cheaper for the University.

The HSG started implementation in 2013. Through the acquisition of the building in Tellstrasse 2 and the construction of the Teaching Pavilion, two large properties were made available for teaching and research. As a consequence, one rental property each in Rosenbergstrasse 60, in Höhenweg 2 and in Guisanstrasse 92 could be released to the market. In the next few years, further rented properties in the quarter are intended to be gradually released.

Teaching Pavilion with photovoltaic installation

With the beginning of Spring Semester 2014, teaching operations on the campus have been extended into the new Teaching Pavilion. The new building above the car park is a wood frame construction built by the regional firm, Blumer-Lehmann AG, which will be rented by the HSG for ten years. The roof is equipped with a photovoltaic installation which generates energy for up to eleven households a year. The power produced by the installation is fed into the local grid. The roof has been made available by the Swiss firm, Photovoltaik GmbH, which means that no additional costs accrue to the HSG. As soon as the Teaching Pavilion is removed, the installation will be re-used elsewhere.