Hamburg’s Science Senator Katharina Fegebank, DESY director Helmut Dosch, and other guests of honour today laid the cornerstone for the new DESY visitor centre, DESYUM. Alongside a large atrium, a cafeteria, and offices, the six-storey building will offer a lively multimedia exhibition that makes DESY’s research and innovations accessible to the general public. The DESYUM will be a landmark on the campus, working as a public meeting point and a forum for everyone. Its opening is planned for 2025.

“Research is an important part of society and an integral part of our culture,” says Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors. “Therefore, DESY traditionally seeks close exchange with the public, and so we regularly invite people to events and guided tours on our internationally oriented DESY campus. With the DESYUM and a fascinating, interactive science exhibition for all, which extends over two floors, we are creating a new dialogue platform and a new contact point for everyone interested in science: The DESYUM will be DESY's shop window to the world.”

Hamburg’s Science Senator Katharina Fegebank says: “The DESYUM will be a nexus for visitors and guest researchers from all over the world. With its multimedia exhibition centre, it will not only enrich the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld that is being built in the area around DESY, but it will also be a meeting place for open dialogue between science and civil society. The DESYUM is thus not only an outstanding calling card for DESY, but also for the entire Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld.”

Centrally located on the campus and with an attractive design and a permanent exhibition, DESYUM will become a permanent fixture among Hamburg’s attractions.

The Welcome Service, the service centre for the many thousands of guest scientists that DESY welcomes on campus each year, will be housed in DESYUM. Alongside the Welcome Service, the Press and Communications (PR) and Innovation and Technology Transfer (ITT) departments will find a new home there.

With its six storeys (five aboveground), the DESYUM will offer 3250 square metres of usable space. The building plan comes from the architecture firm HPP Architekten in Hamburg. The striped façade, made from anodised aluminium, is inspired by the shape of high-precision tracking detectors that are used to measure fast particles. Curves and circles in the floor plan, on the roof terrace, and in the façade refer to the shapes of DESY’s particle accelerators.

The building is being constructed in accordance with the BNB Silver sustainability standard. For example, the façade is to be built from screwed recycled and recyclable aluminium. Through a special construction technique, 30 percent of the concrete normally used for the load-bearing structure will be saved. The energy-efficient building will be connected to DESY’s local heating network and be warmed by waste heat from DESY’s particle accelerators. A biodiverse green roof with a rain storage function will compensate for at least a part of the land used for the building.

The DESYUM costs about 28.7 million euro, including the first exhibition. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) finances 90 percent of the project, with the other 10 percent coming from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

 

The DESYUM in a nutshell:

• 3250 square metres usable space split between six levels (including an underground level)
• Construction costs including the initial exhibition: 28.7 million euro (as of April 2023)
• The building is funded from the German federal research ministry BMBF (90%) and the State of Hamburg (10%).
• Construction will be complete at the end of 2024. Afterwards will be a commissioning phase lasting two to three months.
• In the second quarter of 2025, the DESYUM will be handed over to users.
• The exhibition is planned to open in April or May 2025.