I believe they have a department for this and I did some research and found out that planning on a new physics building is currently being done (seems my information was outdated). The “Bauherr” ist the senate of the city, so at least in this case they are not doing it “in house”.

Source: https://www.tu.berlin/facilities/services/baumassnahmen/ersatzneubau-experimental-physik-ex-p

I am not exactly sure how the financing works. The city made the current cuts to the budget, so I guess they are least finance a part of the universities.

In theory the TU Berlin has the money to renovate one of their most important buildings (physics), but as far as I know the proposal was turned down (either internally or externally)

So yeah, half of the physics department is kind of losing their workplace and laboratories right now. They even had a nobel laureate from japan write the mayor to say: “this research is important, they need the funding if we are to work with the TU in the future”

Sorry for ranting. It’s a heated topic for me

Edit: we are also talking about stuff like the ceiling coming down, no running water or (the opposite) pipes bursting. Some buildings are permanently closed now

Is it? We are completely underfunded and for our local universities 50-70% of buildings are in dire need of renovations. Granted, this has been exacerbated by the current administration, but the problems with the buildings have been brewing for years/decades.

I am in Berlin btw.

Very interesting. I’ve worked with the data mentioned before (as a student) and never really thought about such problems. Will do so from now on.