Aachen, November 4, 2016 – RWTH Aachen and the City of Aachen decided to set aside two individual areas in the Campus Park on Campus Melaten for temporary student housing because of the high number of enrolled students and the lack of suitable student accommodation. Manfred Nettekoven (Chancellor of RWTH Aachen), Marianne Conradt (Aachen City District Mayoress), Sjef Thewissen (Blauw Estate BV) and Ute Willems (Building and Real Estate Management North Rhine-Westphalia) attended the official opening ceremony for the Student Campus Aachen today. The three residential modules offer a total of 285 student accommodation units. 170 of these units have been rented to date, with 120 occupants now in residence. Applications for accommodation units in the third residential module can be submitted via Student Campus Aachen (www.studentencampus-aachen.de).

Campus Melaten is a university expansion area of the federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia, where student accommodation is generally not permitted. Due to the acute shortage of student housing, the state and the City of Aachen decided to allow a temporary exception and permit student housing on campus for a maximum of seven years. Economic concerns with regards to the short time period limited the options to existing, mobile solutions. A decision was made in favor of module structures that had previously been in use in the Netherlands. These will now be completely refurbished and adapted to the requirements of a state-of-the-art residential project.

Each residential module consists of two three-storied building sections, interconnected by arcades and bridges. The resulting courtyard acts as a communicative intermediate zone. Seating cubes on the ground floor and some bridges for use as a kind of communal balcony offer students space for interaction and meet-ups.

Each housing unit offers a private bathroom and kitchenette. The units vary in size between 26 and 29 square meters. The units are available for rent starting at EUR 350.00 per calendar month plus ancillary costs. The accommodation units are marketed via Student Campus Aachen (www.studentencampus-aachen.de). The residential complex additionally offers 285 bicycle stands as well as over 140 parking spaces.