MU to build new Faculty of Informatics building for CZK 751 million

The new building of the Faculty of Informatics will meet contemporary standards for materials and technology. The design also focuses on improving the building’s energy efficiency and reducing operating costs, as well as improving accessibility to classrooms and workplaces for people with disabilities.

The reconstruction will provide modern teaching facilities for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as early career researchers, enabling courses to be taught with a focus on innovation and new trends, with the participation of industry experts. It will support the creation of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams from computer science, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities and the development of long-term interdisciplinary cooperation, as well as strengthening research cooperation with industry, state administration and local government.

The main focus will be on Building D. Originally a production hall, its layout and equipment no longer meet the needs of teaching. Other parts of the complex, connected to buildings B and C, will also be renovated. As structural engineers have determined that the extension of Building D would not be safe, it will have to be completely demolished and replaced by a new 5-storey building.

“The capacity of all the existing lecture theatres and classrooms in this part of the Faculty is now completely inadequate. The decision to rebuild the building was also taken in view of the expected increase in the number of students at the Faculty in the coming years and, in particular, the fact that the classrooms are heavily used on a daily basis, which is a major obstacle to the creation of new courses or the expansion of existing ones,” explained the Dean of the Faculty of Informatics Jiří Barnat.

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The new Building D will house new teaching spaces, specialist classrooms, research laboratories and staff offices. Preparatory work, such as the relocation of fibre optic networks, began in spring 2024, while the actual reconstruction of Building D and related parts of Buildings B and C began last December. The refurbishment is scheduled for completion in spring 2027.

The Faculty of Informatics’ operations will be severely restricted during the reconstruction. “The most difficult aspect is the impact on the Faculty’s teaching facilities: three large lecture halls with capacities of 250, 120 and 180 seats are located in the current building D, while four other smaller lecture halls and five computer rooms are located in the downstream parts of buildings B and C. We have secured alternative teaching space in cooperation with other MU faculties, especially the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts, and rented others from the Brno University of Technology and the University of Defence,” explained the secretary of the Faculty of Informatics Lenka Bartošková. Computer classrooms that cannot be rented elsewhere are already being built on the first floor of Building C.

“Students and teachers will have to make do with borrowed classrooms outside the Faculty complex next year and the year after. However, I believe that the temporary inconvenience caused by the ongoing reconstruction will be understood by the academic community, knowing that it will lead to better facilities in the future,” added Dean Barnat.

The total cost of the reconstruction is estimated at CZK 751 million and is an example of the involvement of several sources of funding at Masaryk University. “This investment project is an example of our University’s ability to implement large projects using multiple sources of funding, in this case the Programme for the Development and Renewal of the Material and Technical Base of Public Universities (NIP), the Johannes Amos Comenius Operational Programme (OP JAK) and MU’s own funds,” said MU Bursar David Póč, adding that the reconstruction of the Faculty of Informatics follows a major investment project already underway, namely the MUNI BioPharma Hub involving the construction of a complex designed primarily for the Faculty of Pharmacy on the Bohunice University Campus.

Radim Polčák, the Vice-Rector for Development, Legislation and Information Technology of Masaryk University, also noted that the reconstruction of the Faculty of Informatics is the second largest investment after the MUNI BioPharma Hub project. “I particularly appreciate the courage of the management of the Faculty of Informatics in embarking on the reconstruction and investment plan. And just as they expect a lot from this project, Masaryk University also expects a lot from the Faculty of Informatics in the coming years. I would also like to thank all the funding providers, especially the Ministry of Education, as well as the project team and all the people involved in preparing and submitting the necessary documents.”

The Botanická Street complex, which houses the Faculty of Informatics, was built in the 1970s for former research institutes and state enterprises. As a result, the technologies and materials used are outdated. The building envelope is inadequately insulated, the existing spaces do not meet the capacity requirements for the increase in the number of distribution networks in the building, the equipment of the lecture halls and their structural and technical condition show their age and the period of construction, when little attention was paid to acoustics. The technical equipment of the lecture theatres is also no longer satisfactory and does not meet current public health standards for ventilation and lighting.

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