The University of Liberec is preparing to build a complex for 420 million

Liberec - The Technical University of Liberec (TUL) is preparing to build another research and teaching complex costing more than 420 million crowns. The school received a grant for the so-called Building G from the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovations and aims to start construction later this year. The university spokesperson Jaroslava Kočárková informed ČTK about this today. This is not the first similar project; a new research center for nanomaterials costing 800 million crowns, also funded by the EU, is currently being completed on the campus.
    The new complex G for advanced technologies will serve research, development, and teaching. The project was prepared by the TUL Architectural Office, signed by Jiří Suchomel and Jiří Janďourek. The four-story building with a total usable area of 9,400 square meters will be designed as low-energy and will complete the Students' Square. According to Kočárková, the school has already obtained a building permit and has completed the selection process for the project documentation, which will be provided by the Jablonec company Atelier 4.
    Building G corresponds, according to TUL rector Zdeněk Kůs, to the needs of a pro-European and research-oriented university. "It will solve our current insufficient classroom capacity, the level of classroom and laboratory equipment will increase, and thus improve the conditions for innovation in study programs, which is a necessary condition for maintaining and improving the quality of teaching and scientific work," the rector told ČTK. The university will also gain a dignified auditorium in the building, which is currently lacking. The project also includes a parking area for 30 cars, including six spaces for the disabled.
    The main part of the faculties' teaching, which are currently scattered across several locations in different parts of Liberec, will be moved to the new complex. It will primarily be used by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the Faculty of Science and Humanities, the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Economics, and the Faculty of Mechatronics, Informatics, and Interdisciplinary Studies. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of this year and must be completed by the end of 2014.
    The new complex is one of the largest projects in the history of the technical university. The only larger investment is the center for nanomaterials, advanced technologies, and innovation at a cost of 800 million crowns, which is set to be completed this year. In recent years, the university has invested hundreds of millions into modernization and development. In 2007, a new rector's office building was completed at a cost of approximately 195 million crowns, and a renovation costing 350 million has been completed for the dormitory complex in Harcov, which served to accommodate athletes during the ski championship in 2009.