Innovation Campus Colosseum Essen
Industrial landmark transformed into a future-oriented laboratory
The Colosseum Essen is a building with history. A space defined by movement from the outset: first as an industrial power machine, later as a stage for art and audiences. The new usage concept extends this dynamism into the future. The Innovation Campus preserves the historical envelope and transforms the interior into a multi‑layered spatial continuum in which working, research, encounter, and public life are interconnected.
Suspended cloud as a communicative centre of interconnected routes and meeting points
House‑within‑a‑house structure for flexible working and research environments
Open ground floor for culture, exchange, and public use
Demountable modularconstruction and single‑grade materials
The spatial concept is based on three interlocking systems.
Firstly, the historical hall is retained as a large, light-filled spatial shell with its distinctive structural framework. Secondly, two lateral house‑within‑a‑house structures frame the space and provide multi-layered working environments with clear zoning. Thirdly, the cloud develops at the centre as a suspended assembly of modular steel‑timber elements, hung from the existing structure.
The architectural concept does not respond with a major intervention but with a precisely developed system of volumes, platforms, and circulation routes integrated into the existing building. The scheme respects the spatial logic of the historical hall and reinforces it by ensuring that new structures act as light additions.mung.
The cloud forms the spatial and conceptual centre of the campus a social space for encounter, interaction, and collaborative work. Light, open, and visibly constructed, it is suspended from steel cables within the historical hall. Its modular construction, consisting of a steel skeleton with timber infill, supports the flexibility and circularity of the system, designed according to cradle‑to‑cradle principles and therefore demountable and reusable.
The construction follows a consistently circular design approach. Steel and timber are layered as single‑grade materials; components are bolted or slotted; services run in raised systems to simplify future adaptations or dismantling. The cloud is conceived as a transformable system an organism that adapts to new requirements and uses material resources consciously.
The concept establishes a clear spatial sequence. The ground floor opens as a marketplace: an open, multifunctional area for exhibitions, lectures, or cultural programmes. Above this, a series of zones for focused work, collaboration, communication, and creativity unfolds. The cloud marks the interface within this landscape. It links circulation, shortens distances, and, as a spatial body, provides orientation within the large volume of the hall. A dedicated cloud app forms the digital infrastructure of the campus, managing access, room bookings, communication, and connecting physical and digital working environments.
The historical hall remains the defining element of identity while opening more strongly to the outside than before. Gastronomy, lounge, and auditorium are positioned on the side facing the square, creating an active entrance. The mixed-use programme strengthens the site as part of the neighbourhood an inviting meeting point for employees, visitors, and local residents. The openness of the ground floor allows the campus to function like a marketplace, depending on the operational concept.
- Project
- Innovation Campus Colosseum
- Location
- Essen
- GFA
- 19.300 m²
- Competition
- 2020
- Uses
- Innovation hub, cloud working environments, labs, open spaces, auditorium, gastronomy, community areas, cultural and event spaces
