Aperio from ASSA ABLOY protects HafenCity University Hamburg

Customer

The HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU) offers courses and research in areas such as architecture, civil engineering, geomatics and urban planning. The new, spectacular university building is located in Grasbrook harbor on the south bank of the River Elbe, one of Hamburg’s most important regeneration areas. The university has around 2,400 students and 460 employees. Students and staff were previously dispersed across five different sites in the city, but are now located in the new 14,000 square meter building.

Challenge

The explicit requirement during the planning phase was to install a modern, flexible access control system for staff and students at HCU. The building has two foyers on different levels, a media center and library, a cafeteria, lecture theaters, laboratories, seminar and workshop rooms, offices for working and research teams, study and group rooms, and premises for exhibitions and other events.

Solution

HCU chose to install an innovative electronic access control system from SIEMENS to provide better control and reduce administrative costs. ASSA ABLOY's Aperio components are an essential part of this system, which comprises around 500 electronic offline cylinders. In combination with online readers and online doors, more doors can be fitted with Aperio offline cylinders, and all access rights are saved on RFID cards through online access control systems. For security reasons, it is possible to alter the validity of keycards.

This means that the IT department at HCU has better control, can simply manage organizational changes in real time and only needs to monitor a single security system. Moreover, users only need a single locking medium for increased security and user-friendliness. Another advantage of Aperio cylinders is that the system can be expanded gradually as need arises. The flexible system can be simply adapted to the demands made on the building.