The striking 100 m long bar of the “Center for Soft Nanoscience (SoN)” on the science campus in Münster operates under very special conditions that only a tailor-made, highly functional and high-tech building can offer. The university wanted the SoN to help raise the international profile of Münster as a research location.
From the outside, the three-storey building looks like a technical apparatus: shiny silver, smooth, functional and dynamic thanks to the sloping façade to the south. This contrasts with the other end of the façade, which is surrounded by a wild flowering hill.
On a total area of almost 8,000 m², 140 workplaces were created for professors, doctoral candidates and Master's students.
The length of the building is emphasized by ribbon windows on the upper floors, while the structure itself is clad in shimmering silver-green aluminium composite panels.

The SoN is accessed via a spacious atrium in the sloping end of the façade. The scientific uses of the ground floor, the clean room, the physics laboratories and the microscopy area, are arranged one behind the other.
The clean room requires a building depth well above the standard. The 5 laboratories for tests in particle-free air are surrounded by a gray room that is only accessible to people and materials via airlocks. In order to make optimum use of daylight despite the great depth, all offices are located on the long western flank of the building.
In contrast to the workstations, the atrium is an almost homely communication zone.