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New AI centre for students, researchers and businesses starts construction

28 September 2020

In keeping with the building's intended purpose, a robot performed the official kickoff for the construction of LAB42. Amsterdam Science Park, in collaboration with the municipality of Amsterdam and others, will be getting its own information and artificial intelligence centre where students, researchers and business people will be able to work together on all kinds of innovations. With sustainability of top priority for the project, it has been designed to be energy neutral. The building is scheduled for completion in the 2022–2023 academic year.
Artist impression van LAB42
Artist impression van LAB42

LAB42 will become an international hub for developing talent in the fields of digital innovation and artificial intelligence (AI). The centre is the result of a partnership between the UvA, the municipality of Amsterdam and the private sector. The purpose of the centre is to develop, stimulate and share new knowledge with society and provide answers to the informatics and AI problems of tomorrow through co-creation.

Students, researchers, business sector

The building has been designed to promote interaction and collaboration. Students, researchers and business people involved in informatics and AI will soon be able to gather under one roof. Catering facilities will be available in the atrium, teaching and lecture rooms will be located on the first and second floors, while meeting rooms, offices for SMEs and lounge areas for people to meet in will be created on the third floor. It will be possible to lease space in the building too. The top floors of the building will be reserved for the offices of the Informatics Institute and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation of the Faculty of Science. The second through fifth floors will also feature AI labs of ICAI, which is dedicated to developing AI technologies in collaborative research settings in partnership with the business sector, government and knowledge institutions.

Sustainable and circular

The design of LAB42 is sustainable, circular and energy neutral. The building will feature solar collectors, smart cooling for the servers, and rain water capture for flushing toilets, among other things. The frame of the building will be formed by a steel skeleton that is fully demountable, a principle that will also apply to the floor sections, partition walls and façade. Where possible, re-usable and recyclable components will be used, making the building an example of circular construction. LAB42 was designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects.

Want to attend the kick-off event?

It's possible to attend the kick-off event on Friday, 9 October. Journalists should RSVP via huisvestingsontwikkeling@uva.nl. Others who are interested can participate digitally via livestream (click here). The kick-off event will provide more details about the necessity for building this centre, the importance of AI as a motor for development in other professional fields, and the features of the design. It will also be possible to take an advanced peak inside LAB42 digitally using a virtual reality headset.