D-CHAB Enzo

Enzos are the winning project of the Ideenwettbewerb 2013, which was held by the Safety, Security, Health and Environment Office (SSHE), the ETH Sustainability and the Office for Events & Location Development. Chemistry graduate Justus Söllner won the 2013 Ideas Competition with his plan for giving the ETH Zurich campus a new lease of life with flexible furniture.

In 2014, each of the 16 Departments of the ETH Zurich was invited to design its own ENZO.

The D-CHAB decided on vitamin B12. A well-known molecule related to the ETH Zurich, which also represents the interdisciplinarity of chemistry was easy to pick. Vitamin B12 is essential to life. It has almost the same red color as the Enzo and is associated with extraordinary research at the ETH Zurich as well as two Nobel prizes. The design of the Enzo was thus obvious: The chemical structure in white on the red polymer material, and two short statements on the D-CHAB and the vitamin B12 molecule. It was difficult, however, to draw the chemical structure without losing any important parts of the molecule as a result of the openings on the surface of the Enzo.

Vitamin B12 is indeed a complex molecule, and the total synthesis of this vitamin, achieved in 1972 by the groups of Albert Eschenmoser (ETH Zürich) and Robert B. Woodward (Harvard University), is considered a milestone in chemistry.

The chemical structure of vitamin B12 was confirmed in 1956 by X-ray analyses. Some sources, however, date the discovery to 1955 or even to 1954. Prof. Albert Eschenmoser, who contributed to the design of the Enzo, did confirm that this indeed happened in 1956.