OREANDA-NEWS. September 18, 2013. A new building of the Tallinn University of Technology was opened – the sixth building. A four-storey combustion test hall, laboratories for tribology and powder metallurgy, new types of solar panels, automotive engineering research laboratories, design and engineering studios, renewed student formulas and robots are situated there.

This is the first part of the investment project. During the course of the project, the fifth building will also be renovated, in addition to construction of the sixth building. The whole project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, in the sum of almost 13 million euros. Support for the University is mediated by the Archimedes Foundation.

The new building is primarily a research building, where researchers, graduate and doctoral students of the TUT Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, but also Faculty of Chemical and Materials Technology will work. The dean of the TUT Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Tauno Otto, singles out better research opportunities and better time management: "Students will gain significant amount of time – the old school building in Kopli was nearly 13 km away from the Mustamae Campus."

The new building encompasses the Department of Thermal Engineering, Department of Materials Engineering, and Department of Machinery of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering as well as the Department of Materials Science of the Faculty of Chemical and Materials Technology. The TUT Robotics Club, Formula Student Team Tallinn and the Student Council of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering have moved to the new premises as well.

There is a test hall (so-called Thermal Engineering Cathedral) covering four floors of the Department of Thermal Engineering. Modern test-stand research can be conducted there (combustion processes and heat-related research) in order to reduce miscalculations in heating plants design and construction.

An effective, efficient and well-controlled ventilation system has been built into the technological laboratories of the Department of Materials Engineering. The heat of the high-tech equipment with great heat isolation is conducted to the central cooling system. Rooms are equipped with process gases, specialty gases and compressed air pipe systems.

In the Department of Machinery, the automotive engineers can work in the new acoustics lab with a full-sized acoustic stand, which, thanks to the room’s exceptional acoustic insulation, does not disturb the neighbours.

Students and doctoral students of the international master's program "Materials and processes of Sustainable Energetics" in the TUT Faculty of Chemical and Materials Technology participate in developing new materials for solar panels in the research laboratories of the Department of Materials Science, and cooperate closely with researchers of the Department Thermal Engineering in studying sustainable energy, in addition to the Faculty’s traditional research on oil shale.

The building has approximately 13,000 square meters of useful area; the volume of the building is about 62,000 cubic meters. The completion of the building means that all of TUT is located on the Mustamae University campus.

The old (sixth) building was so run-down that it was reasonable to build a new building with new infrastructure for research purposes. New research equipment has also been acquired via different investment projects. The old building was demolished and the new and modern research building was built in its place. The architect of the building is Velle Kadalipp, and the builder is Skanska AS.

The building is located on the TUT campus, Ehitajate tee 5, Tallinn.