Stuttgart, 08.10.2021 – Today, the Center for Applied Quantum Technology (ZAQuant) is handed over to the University of Stuttgart on the Vaihingen campus. The prototypical new building provides excellent conditions for cutting-edge research and teaching. Professor Jörg Wrachtrup, Head of the 3rd Institute of Physics and host of ZAQuant, conducts interdisciplinary and cross-faculty research in the field of quantum sensor technology. In the future, around 70 employees from 15 working groups will use the high-precision laboratories, clean rooms, laser laboratories, physics, chemistry and biochemistry laboratories along with the office and communication spaces.
The beating heart of the ZAQuant are the four high-precision measuring rooms in the central hall. With the greatest possible shielding from micro-seismic vibration and low-frequency magnetic fields, the 10-metre-high laboratory boxes provide a research environment that is without equal worldwide.
The multitude of highly specialized uses resulted in a challenging complexity of the building task. For the concrete requirements specification of this building prototype, there were no standards or characteristic values to which one could refer in the planning. Inventiveness was necessary – solutions had to be developed individually in order to provide a functionally and economically appropriate response to the given task.
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One might think that the aforementioned terms represent opposites. At the ZAQuant, however, they are essential prerequisites in their holistic nature, which are necessary for the success of research and promote innovation. The architecture takes this into account by, on the one hand, creating the necessary technical framework with a high level of structural effort but, on the other hand, allowing the space to facilitate communal experiences.
Markus Hammes
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