OREANDA-NEWS. February 08, 2016. University of Tartu announced an architecture competition to find the best solution for the IT centre to be built on Narva Road. The city of Tartu decided to transfer the immovable property next to Oeconomicum to the university for building the centre. The centre will house the Institute of Computer Science, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, and School of Economics and Business Administration. The building should be as energy efficient as possible.

Rector Volli Kalm and Director of Administration Andres Liinat participated in the Tartu City Council meeting, where the city decided to transfer two properties on Narva Road to the University of Tartu. Next, at the end of January, the university, together with the city of Tartu, will announce the architecture competition to find the best architectural solution for building the IT centre.

The city considers the university’s role in developing the city centre very important and this is reflected in the city centre development strategy and general plan. The city wants for the centre to remain the location of the University of Tartu and the related knowledge-based jobs and to provide students and university employees with a good study and work environment.

The university and city expect for the building to fit the location architecturally, be modern and timeless but at the same time be dignified worthily of its status. Important keywords are big auditoriums, spaciousness, functionality, the possibility to adjust rooms according to the needs of the learners, quality of construction, maximum reliability and energy efficiency.

Architects are also expected to offer the optimum solution for integrating IT specialisations and economics studies in one building.

The deadline for submitting works to the architectural idea competition is the end of March and the winner will be announced in the first half of April. This is followed by possible archaeological research and specifying the financing model. The design contract signed with the winner of the competition and the general plan of the city centre that will be approved in March enable to start immediately with the planning, which is intended to take 12 months, and which in turn would enable to start building in summer 2017. Around 20 months have been estimated for the building period and if the project proceeds smoothly, students and lecturers can start studies and teaching in the new building in the autumn semester of 2019 the latest.

Rector Volli Kalm was pleased that in addition to the modern representative buildings in Maarjam?isa campus, in a few years the university will have a building in the city centre, which will prove the university’s innovativeness and support the good quality of the core activities. “The aim of the IT centre is to become one of the leading international centres for IT education in Europe, which would contribute significantly to Estonia’s leading position in innovative IT solutions with its world-class graduates. Completing the building is an important step forward in developing the centre,” added Kalm.