Forum at Domshof

Courtyard of the building at the Domshof.

The University in the City Center

As of October, Faculty 6: Law, the Center of Labor and Politics (ZAP), the Institute for Labour and Economy (iaw), and HERE AHEAD are moving to the city center at Domshof. "Forum at Domshof" will be completed by the end of the year. In order to adapt the former NordLB building to the needs of the University of Bremen, renovation measures are currently taking place. On this website, the University of Bremen will provide insights into the conversion process, information about the move, and background stories.

 

Forum at Domshof at a Glance

 

Built in 2016

 

18,150 m² floor space

 

1 faculty

3 research centers

 

100,000 books in the Law Library (Juridicum)

Current Images of the Future Forum at Domshof

Room for Learning, Teaching, and Working

Of the 18,150 square meter floor space (not including the inner courtyard) the university's main rental space including the cafeteria and the former banking hall encompasses around 13,460 square meters. The adjacent areas are spread across three floors and total around 4,690 square meters. Constructed in 2016, the building was formerly used by NordLB.

Experience Science

The entrance area was formerly a banking hall. The spacious area with its high ceilings offers an ideal location for events and activities and will be able to be used by the public as well. Different science events will be held here. The benches can be moved aside to make space for chairs and host a large audience.

Historic Bank Aesthetic with Modern Ambience

The architectural design is evident in the banking hall as well as the sixth floor. Inspired by the optic of pompous banks of former times, the former banking hall boasts walls with oak paneling as well as wooden counters and black leather furniture. The colors red and green are present throughout – in the flooring of the banking hall as well as red linoleum and carpeting in the event rooms. Red is reminiscent of the cobblestones in Bremen's city center and green as a complementary color to provide contrast.

 

Entrance to the Inner Courtyard

In the lower area next to the former banking hall, a Studierendenwerk cafeteria was created. A passageway to the inner courtyard provides extra seating and ensures that the coffee from the Studierendenwerk can be enjoyed outside as well.

Study Spaces for Students in the Law Library

Work is currently underway to create space for the Juridicum, the legal library of the State and University Library Bremen, which will move in at the beginning of 2025. This will provide the law students, whose courses will mainly take place in Forum at Domshof, convenient access to specialist literature. Foresight is crucial for planning the secure mounting of the bookcases. Per square meter, completely full bookcases will bear a load of 1.2 tons. Fixtures are being installed directly into the concrete floors for these, which means that they will not be able to be moved afterwards. Study spaces will be created along the glass panels of the legal library as well as in separate rooms.

Various Rooms for Lectures

Several classrooms in varying sizes were created on different floors. These includes small seminar rooms that can host about 30 people, as well as large lecture halls with about 135 seats for the full range of courses offered. Establishing these requires combining several of the former offices. On the sixth floor, conference rooms were created. The biggest challenge was in updating the fire protection, the emergency escape routes, and the ventilation system, since the building will be used by more people during university operations than as a bank.

 

Offices for Faculty 06 and the Institutions

In addition to study spaces and classrooms, the new building also provides offices for the administration, teaching staff, and employees of iaw, ZAP, and HERE AHEAD. These are spread out across the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors. Only minor alterations to the bank offices in the floor plan were necessary for creating these. The building's characteristic wide corridors has been kept as well. These are retained to provide escape routes and fire protection, but also provide the possibility for installing seating.

 

University Cafeteria at Domshof

NordLB already had a cafeteria on the sixth floor, which the Studierendenwerk Bremen uses to create a student cafeteria. Students and employees have meal options directly in the Forum at Domshof building. The cafeteria offers many seating options that can be used outside of the cafeteria's opening hours. This provides students and employees with places to meet and talk. 

Historic Facade

Even though the majority of the building was rebuilt in 2016, part of the historic facade has remained and is protected as a historical monument. Today, the narrow, elongated windows in the interior are still reminiscent of the old building. The original building was repeatedly extended over the years, which meant that it was comprised of four separate buildings with around 65 staircases before the conversion. In order to use the rooms more efficiently, the building was reconstructed and the floor plan redesigned.

Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte together with Anja Stöckl (consultant to the Director of Finance and Administration at the University of Bremen), Benjamin Krohne (Project Manager / authorized signatory NORD/FM, Norddeutsche Facility - Management GmbH), Udo Buskamp (Managing Director BLB/Immobilien)

Mayor Bovenschulte Visits Forum at Domshof

With Forum at Domshof, the University of Bremen is gaining a new location in Bremen's city center. The former NordLB building (previously Bremer Landesbank) is still being remodeled. Bremen's mayor Andreas Bovenschulte took a look at the building progress.

Behind the Scenes with up2date.

Antje Kautz

Domshof Relocation from the Employees’ Perspective

New location, new offices: What do Faculty of Law employees think about the upcoming relocation? up2date. asked around.

A man and a woman look into the camera

Off to the City Center: iaw, zap, and HERE AHEAD on the Move

There is a lot of talk about the Faculty of Law’s relocation, but two university institutes and one inter-university institution are also moving to Forum at Domshof.

Entrance Hall of the Forum at Domshof

New Building, New Rooms, New Opportunities

Soon the university will have a new building that meets the most modern standards – Forum at Domshof. It is easier to implement changes here than at the more than 50-year-old campus in Horn-Lehe.

Bremen inner city

From Church to Banks to Science and Teaching

Bremen’s city center was once dominated by the church and later by banks. In the newest era, the university will enter the scene – the site history of Forum at Domshof.

Silke Huesmann in the library.

How Many Moving Boxes Does a Branch Library Need?

In addition to the Faculty of Law, the Juridicum legal library will also relocate to Forum at Domshof. Silke Huesmann talks about how SuUB is overseeing the relocation of 100,000 books.

Students Manuel Mischewski Gil, Vincent Wagener and Nils Kaufholz

Forum at Domshof: What Do Students Think?

What do students think of the move? What are they looking forward to, what concerns do they have? up2date. interviewed five of them.

Andrea Saathoff and Heike Hemmersbach from the Roommanagement

How Room Management Is Tackling the Relocation to Domshof

Assessing, planning, discussing, organizing: Relocating an entire faculty and more requires a great deal of skill and patience.

Ann-Kathrin Guder, Referatsleitung Uni Transfer

New Opportunities for Cooperation

The partial relocation of the university to the city center creates many new opportunities for knowledge and technology transfer. up2date. spoke to the head of UniTransfer, Anne-Kathrin Guder, about new ideas emerging from this.

Gralf-Peter Calliess steht vor einem Bücherregal mit einem Buch in der Hand.

A Brand New Location for the University

Relocation to the city center by October: Why this is both a challenge and an adventure for the Faculty of Law

Questions and Answers about the Move to Domshof

The NordLB building is up to current building, energy, and technical standards, since it was built in 2016. The rooms are structured and distributed well for the teaching needs of the University of Bremen. The sixth floor already had a cafeteria, which the Studierendenwerk will use for a university cafeteria. The location also offers direct connections with the tram to the existing campus and technology park and the new building is easily accessible for students and employees with public transportation.

Seminars and lectures will take place in this location. The Juridicum, the legal library of the State and University Library Bremen, will also move to the new building, and will offer study spaces for students. The small concert hall in the "Die Glocke" concert building will be available for use as a lecture hall.

The Studierendenwerk Bremen will revive the NordLB's existing cafeteria with their student cafeteria. This will provide students, teaching staff, and employees with some meal options. 

In addition, there will be event and activity areas at "Forum at Domshof," which can be used by the entire university and can be booked by the public. For example, the former banking hall will be used for academic and participative events and conferences.

With roughly 1,500 students, 160 employees, and a faculty library, Faculty 06 was particularly suited for the partial relocation. Since there is little overlap with other degree programs, disruptions in course schedules can be prevented and academic feasibility ensured for all. 

side entrance to the Forum am Domshof building

The Forum at Domshof is open on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and can be accessed using the side entrance (Unser Lieben Frauen Kirchhof).

In the 2024/25 winter semester, the small auditorium of the "Glocke" in the city center will be used as a large lecture hall for the 1st and 3rd semester law courses. Some of the lectures will continue to take place in GW1 building. You can find out where the respective courses will take place in the course directory.

Forum at Domshof has two parking levels. The 1st level is open to the public. Around 200 free bicycle stands are available there.

There are car parking spaces on the 2nd level, but these are reserved for students with disabilities who require a car. Parking is therefore not possible directly in Forum at Domshof. Public parking garages in the city center can be used for a fee.

The relocation of Faculty 06 and the legal library will free up around 10,500 square meters in the building GW1 and on campus. This area will then be used by Faculty 11: Human and Health Sciences.

 

No, the University of Bremen sees itself as a campus university, which is characterized by short distances between lectures and interdisciplinary collaboration. However, the university is also growing, which is a very positive development, and with this more space for lectures and employees is required, which is why the relocation of Faculty 06 was necessary.

At the moment, the university has no further plans to relocate to additional buildings in the city center. However, the option to use space in the city center for further research centers or student housing and work is not currently excluded.