The Liberec University has converted the former dormitory into laboratories

Liberec - The Technical University of Liberec has transformed the former dormitory on Třebízského Street, built in the 1950s, into modern laboratories. The reconstruction of the building cost nearly 75 million crowns, of which almost 35 million was obtained by the school from European grants from the Operational Program Research, Development, and Education. The building now houses laboratories and equipment worth millions of crowns, said university spokesman Radek Pirkl today to ČTK.

The so-called clean laboratories, which will allow work in a sterile environment, will serve the Faculty of Health Studies and the Department of Chemistry. The building also features a computer tomography machine for polymers and composites worth 14 million and a climate testing chamber for solar simulation worth more than four million.

"The spaces in Building T will be used by five of our faculties, it will house an entire department of the university research institute as well as some rectory offices. It is therefore a university-wide building that will, I hope, be lively and will not be in conflict with the surrounding villas," said Vice-Rector for Development Radek Suchánek.

The building on Třebízského Street was the first constructed by the Liberec university, then known as the Higher School of Engineering. Students also helped during the construction. The building was designed by the architects of university blocks E and F on Husova Street, Eduard Adamíra and Augustin Šimůnek from Liberec's Stavoprojekt. Students lived in the dormitory from 1955, but it was not completed until 1958. It had 200 beds, a canteen, common rooms, and also housed a doctor. The building served as a dormitory until the early 1990s, then it was handed over to the Czech Police by the university.

Four years ago, the university repurchased the buildings for 11.5 million crowns. The property was in very poor condition, which is why a complete reconstruction began two years later. Above the original entrance to the building was a mosaic depicting a pair of students, created in the style of socialist realism. At the beginning of the reconstruction, it was removed from the wall and taken away by experts from the Faculty of Restoration at the University of Pardubice. It will not return above the entrance of the building; negotiations about its new location are currently ongoing.