Right across the street from the Karolinenplatz lies the darmstadtium conference center.
Picture © Ulrich Mathias (details in the imprint)
This building was opened in 2007, and has a total area of about 18,000 square meters. It was financed in a public-private partnership between the city of Darmstadt, the TU Darmstadt, and the State of Hesse. There were 164 submitted architectural drafts, and the winning one by Talik Chalabi from Vienna was chosen in 2001. The locals call the conference center "Schepp Schachtel" ("slanted box") due to the number of uneven or slanting elements. The official name "darmstadtium" refers to the chemical element number 110 which was produced by fusing lead and tin atoms at very high speed and energy levels. This "discovery" was made by the GSI, a research center for research in heavy ions a couple of kilometers north of Darmstadt.
Among the special features of this ultra-modern conference center is the "Calla" made of glass segments and centering the light falling into the building, the incorporation of a portion of the old city walls, and the inclusion of an old city tower in the basement - which was found during the excavation work for the building. See the images of the conference center for more examples, or come to our conference to see it for yourself!