In autumn 2012, the ARENA2036 project was the winner in the "Research Campus Public-Private Partnership for Innovation" competition of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In order to make room for the newly emerging Research Campus, a new building was constructed, which offers a production environment in which approaches, ideas and results from researches can be tested and directly converted into practicable prototypes for industrial purposes. The total construction costs of the new building were equally shared between the European Union (EFRE funds) via the state of Baden-Württemberg and the University of Stuttgart.

The property is located in the northern area of the university campus Vaihingen. With its shed roof construction and folded aluminium façade, the building reacts to the classic elements of industrial construction. The glazed base optically contributes to the reduction of the total volume and allows passer-by a glaze at the inner workings.

In spring 2015, a competition for "Kunst am Bau" (translated: art in construction) was held, with Mr. Stefan Rohrer from Stuttgart as the winning artist. The folded aluminium façade of the building plays with the light of the surroundings. The lettering installation "Mehr Licht!" (More Light) on the south side takes up this play in terms of content and technology, leaving room for interpretation. The two words cut out of reflective foil and stuck to the façade are read as "MEHR" (MORE) from the west and "LICHT!" (LIGHT!) from the east. Seen from the south, they seem to be pushed into each other and are perceived as an abstract structure.

The head-end is a reinforced concrete skeleton construction, which houses a foyer with a tea kitchen and a connectable seminar room on the ground floor, as well as showers and changing rooms for the employees, toilet facilities and a mail room. On the three floors above, there are office spaces in the typologies of Openspace, combi- and single room as well as the corresponding support areas. The basement accommodates technical and storage rooms.

The column-free shop floor offers space for a wide variety of experimental setups for a versatile production with freely configurable production steps in the combination of man and machine. The area of the hall equipped with a crane runway is located between the rows of columns in east-west direction. On the north side of the hall, outside the craned hall area on the ground floor, there is a foreman's office as well as a social room and workshops. The measuring rooms are located at the eastern front side of the hall on an "adjusted" platform on the second floor. They can thus be accessed via the office area in the head building and served via the crane runway.

On the north side of the hall, the office area is located on the first floor: further offices, which are directly connected to the head building via a corridor. A fully-glazed, storey-high partition wall closes off the space towards the hall and allows a good view of what is happening there.

The building is divided into a head-end with office use, foyer and support functions in the eastern part of the property as well as the adjoining hall body with a delivery area. The large structure (130 m x 46 m x 16 m) impresses with subtle design elements that integrate the volume into the urban context: The matt-reflecting aluminium façade takes up the colourfulness of the campus buildings. Incisions in the east and west façades as well as glass bands give the complex a sense of scale.

The approx. 4,700 sqm large hall is covered with a shed roof at a height of approx. 16 m. The shop floor crane with a max. permissible payload of 10 t spans the entire width of the hall. Energetically, the building meets the high standards of state buildings. In addition, a PV system with a capacity of approx. 80 kWp is located on the western part of the roof.