Mineral ETICS: ETICS Up To 66 Meters High

2023 Author: Hannah Pearcy | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 11:39

Sixty-six meters - the currently tallest building with an ETICS is located in Frankfurt. This is not the only reason why the Westside Tower was a complex project. Armin Scharf Living space is also scarce in Frankfurt / Main, although residential construction is booming like it has not been for a long time. For example in the Europaviertel. One of the most striking buildings is already occupied there: the Westside Tower. The 66 meter high residential building comprises 244 rental apartments. The one- to four-room apartments between 35 and 150 square meters of living space all have a balcony, loggia or terrace and, depending on their location and floor height, offer breathtaking views of the Frankfurt skyline to the Taunus. ETICS up to 66 meters high A mineral, non-flammable ETICS is hidden under the plaster surface of the facade. This makes the Westside Tower currently the tallest German building that carries an energetically highly effective thermal insulation composite system. But it is not only the absolute height that makes the Westside Tower an outstanding project, also the quantity: the insulation work on the facades adds up to around 8,000 square meters. Three Caparol insulation systems with insulation thicknesses between 120 and 200 millimeters and different structures were used. The Caparol WDV system Pro Extra takes over the largest part. Between the windows and under the parapet areas, because of the low lightness values of the top coating, the Carbon Extra system specially developed for intense and dark shades is applied. All-round profiles A special thermal insulation composite system from Caparol is also hidden behind the dark stone surface on the ground floor. The 500 square meter base area is based on the lithoboard system with the particularly tear-proof and dowelled mineral wool slat VB 101, a fabric reinforcement with dowel and the natural stone cladding made of real Italian basalt. "Originally there was still a short list of limestone and sandstone," explains Jörn Gehrig, civil engineer and technical manager at Caparol for the Mitte area. "Because of its expressive color, the basalt was the most appealing to the investor." Manufactured specifically in accordance with the individual parts list in ten different formats, the ten millimeter thick basalt panels were glued to the Caparol ETICS. In addition to the insulation systems including plastering and coating, Caparol also supplied almost 4,000 meters of facade profiles from the Capapor family. They form the upper and lower end of the bright, horizontal facade bands, appear as filigree lines and transform into deep cornices in the area of the balconies and loggias, where traditional cladding provides weather protection but would have interrupted the consistent visual image. The light profiles, which are dark-coated on site, offer a dedicated water flow: at the top with a slope and at the bottom with a drip edge. Concentrated know-how Due to the complexity of the structure with its folds, the cantilevered balconies, recesses in the loggias, the planning and implementation of the thermal insulation composite system was extremely demanding."We were dealing with tricky connections, some of which only developed during the construction process," says Philipp Burger, who was the first point of contact for all questions for Caparol during the execution on site. He made appointments with the general contractor and the planners, took care of the inspection of the facade to ensure compliance with the approval parameters. In addition to Philipp Burger, a whole group of Caparol experts was entrusted with the project, Jörn Gehrig acted as the technical contact in all matters, developed and created the complete detailed planning for the processor FCN GmbH from Nuremberg and took over the technical coordination between all those involved. Gehrig already supported his Hamburg colleague Udo Cordes, planner and property consultant,when creating the specification with the various, technically complex system components. Udo Cordes, however, was the key person in the north: he had been in contact with the investor and the MPP planning office since he first considered the project. He developed the first technical implementations, called in his specialized colleagues as required and accompanied the entire award process. He was also responsible for sampling the various surfaces, materials and colors, including approval by investors and planners. The Frankfurt architects msm were involved as the design office up to performance phase 4, after which MPP from Hamburg devoted itself to the general planning. Also in the Caparol team was Stefan Urban, who clarified the processing-specific and organizational questions with the processor FCN."The storage space available on the property was extremely limited, so in the hot phase we had to coordinate and coordinate the material deliveries with the processor and the local construction management almost daily," Urban describes the logistical framework conditions on site. "Another challenge was to find durable technical solutions for complex connections that also met the design specifications of the planners," said Jörn Gehrig. "Ultimately, we developed the entire details in collaboration with the planners, the general contractor and the fabricator, and implemented them in the drawing. Nothing could be solved here with standard details, everything had to be developed and designed for the specific object, including the sealing of the Capapor profiles,the connection details of the natural stone and the transitions of all these building materials to each other”. Completely new developments were also in demand - for example for a horizontally mountable joint profile that absorbs vertical movements of up to 20 millimeters and is only minimally recognizable. "This has never been on the market before, so we developed and produced it especially for the property," reports Gehrig. Not enough that the purely structural aspects were already very complex, the coordinates of all those involved also required a lot of attention: If the planners were located in Hamburg, the processor came from Nuremberg. Only the general contractor was on site. "We coordinated the different contacts, in the preparation, execution and construction site logistics," says Philipp Burger. The fact that the focus was always on maximum quality is particularly clear here: "Defects that occur later can only be dealt with with great effort in view of the heights," says Stefan Urban with regard to the dimensions of the project. In order to be able to proceed rationally, the processor FCN relied on serial working methods and put together teams that were responsible for individual work steps. "The property looks really good," said Philipp Burger and Udo Cordes in unison. "We have shown that Caparol, as a strong partner, masters the complex requirements of architecture, technology and logistics". Project manager Niels Nirenberg from MPP also praises the intensive support from the Caparol experts, without which the architectural concept would not have worked as planned.

Construction board

Object: Westside Tower, Frankfurt / Main Client: Revitalis Erste Grundstücksgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Hamburg Architecture: MPP Meding Plan + Projekt GmbH, Hamburg; msm meyer schmitz-morkamer, Frankfurt Execution: FCN Bauunternehmen GmbH, Nuremberg General contractor: Max Bögl Bauservice GmbH und Co. KG, Frankfurt branch Products used: ETICS Carbon Extra, ETICS Pro Extra, Lithoboard system, Capapor decor profiles