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With an investment volume of around two billion euros, one of the largest technology-oriented research landscapes in Europe is being created on Campus Melaten and Campus West, covering an area of 800,000 m² and providing 10,000 new jobs. The campus and university area of RWTH Aachen covers a total of 2.5 square kilometers. RWTH Aachen Campus offers its research partners a unique ecosystem of science and business. More than 450 companies rely on on-site consortial research in long-term research collaborations to jointly implement ideas faster and bring them to market maturity.
RWTH Aachen Campus is organized into clusters with overarching research topics and subject areas. The clusters have construction sites that are successively being developed into thematically dedicated research quarters.

Since 2009, in the first stage of development on Campus Melaten, research clusters and additional research infrastructure have been realized or are in development. The research buildings on the campus sites will be realized either as sovereign buildings of RWTH Aachen University or as investor buildings. The clusters are already occupying around half of the available space with a total investment volume of around 600 million euros, of which around 300 million is financed by private investors: biomedical engineering, smart logistics, production engineering, heavy-duty drives, photonics and sustainable energy.

International investor and architect teams are constructing the necessary cluster buildings by means of a building concession. This model is already playing a pioneering role in establishing the asset class of science real estate, which involves investment properties in a renowned university landscape with growth and future prospects.

The construction license for the planning, (turnkey) construction and operation of the cluster buildings with office, seminar, hall and laboratory space, as well as space for peripheral uses, is awarded by RWTH Aachen Campus GmbH – via Europe-wide tenders with an upstream participation competition and subsequent negotiation procedure. The suitable tenants are introduced to potential investors. The required properties are provided as leaseholds. After construction, the investor can transfer the operating rights to third parties.

All services associated with the campus concept and the investor selection process are provided by RWTH Aachen Campus GmbH, a subsidiary of RWTH Aachen (95%) and the City of Aachen (5%).

Landmarken AG (Aachen) is investing in the third and final construction phase of the smart logistics cluster on Campus Melaten. The foundation stone for the building, designed by the Ibbenbüren-based architectural firm agn Niederberghaus & Partner GmbH, which combines state-of-the-art laboratory space with workshop areas, offices, meeting rooms and event space, was laid in mid-September 2023. The intelligent building, which will be used as a real-world laboratory in the future, offers sufficient space for research with its approximately 11,000 m² of rental space. The core element of the six-storey building is an 800 m² multifunctional area with a demonstrator where applications and tests of digital, smart components are carried out. By integrating digital applications, the building will communicate and interact with its users in the future and can thus be operated more efficiently, sustainably and comfortably. As early as late summer 2025, the Smart Commercial Building Center, with its research units and users from the campus ecosystem, will move into the third construction phase of the Smart Logistics cluster, which will thus be the first cluster to be completed at Campus Melaten.

Together with the first investor building, which was realized in the Smart Logistics cluster by Landmarken AG with Meyer & van Schooten (Amsterdam) in 2013, the building forms an architecturally unified ensemble of buildings in a prominent location on Campus-Boulevard. In the second phase of construction, the electromobility laboratory (e.Lab) (now Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components) was built by RWTH Aachen University in 2015 with funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

First phase of construction: CT² – Center for Teaching and Training

Second phase of construction: Innovation Center for Digital Medicine and Training Academy

The expansion of RWTH Aachen Campus continues with Campus West. Five additional research clusters and research-supporting infrastructure facilities such as catering, sports, service, further education and day care facilities, daycare centers and academic housing are being built on the site around Aachen’s Westbahnhof station. Campus West will be closely connected to Campus Melaten and the existing institutes in Campus Mitte via a bridge connection. At the same time, Campus West will be an innovative, CO2-neutral, sustainable urban district that integrates the topics of energy and the environment, the neighborhood and society, mobility and transportation, and IT infrastructure in its structural development.

Find out more about RWTH Aachen Campus!