In Mannheim Neuostheim, the Eastsite industrial estate has been growing for 16 years. The buildings have visual similarities, but each has special details – just like Eastsite XII.
In the Mannheim district of Neuostheim, individual buildings have been built in a harmonious ensemble since shortly after the turn of the millennium: in 2001, the city of Mannheim entrusted the planning of the industrial park to the planning office motorplan and the architectural firm Fischer Architekten.
The team designed buildings that are similar in style and give a harmonious image, for example because most buildings have five floors. However, the buildings that have been expanding the Eastsite piece by piece for 16 years differ in detail: Individual designs of the façade and differences in the arrangement of the windows as well as different concrete colours give each building its own effect and meaning.
"Despite the self-imposed grammar, an attempt was made to find an individual expression for each building. This is achieved in each case through the interpretation of the specifications, the applied art concepts and through the variation of the construction possibilities," say the architects. Dominik Wirtgen's team chose sandwich concrete elements for the commercial buildings on the Eastsite, which were also used in the construction of Eastsite XII.
The processing took place in textile construction, in which the outer shell and the entire anchoring are made with load-bearing glass fibre textiles. The construction method avoids thermal bridges and saves material, according to Wirtgen almost 75 percent less than a conventionally reinforced slab. "The good insulating properties and airtightness of these massive components enhance the effect of the concrete core activation of the in-situ concrete ceilings and interior walls," say the architects.
For the façade, Fischer Architekten chose a design inspired by the classicist bas-relief: a leaf pattern, executed as a bas-relief, adorns the prefabricated concrete slabs. The implementation was achieved with the help of individual structural matrices from RECKLI.
The façade panels at the base were smoothly formed. The precast plant Dreßler Bau developed a suspension for the slabs, which were provided with a loose PP fibre reinforcement to prevent breaks and cracks in the concrete slabs.
Due to the thin-walled construction, it was not possible to implement a deep sculptural façade structure, which would have contradicted the architects' self-chosen requirement to work in a material-saving manner. For the team, the challenge was to achieve a maximum of 10 mm thick high relief for the 30 mm thick facing formwork. It quickly became clear that deep, area-wide embedding by means of negative production could weaken and possibly damage the element. This danger could be avoided with the use of elastic formwork inserts from RECKLI.
They even offered the advantage of making the structure even thinner. For Fischer Architekten, the experts at RECKLI tested various support forms for the positive model on which the matrix was later cast: wood, steel and plastic plates were used to test how deep and detailed the leaf motif of the structure could be realized – in the end, the team decided on a foil that was produced using a 3D printing process. The structure is only 0.7mm thick.
Together with the architects, RECKLI then optimized the design to such an extent that the matrix could be reused and guaranteed exact motif connections. The reusability also meant an economic advantage for the architects. Eastsite XII was completed in 2018 and is the headquarters of a global service provider to the healthcare and chemical industries.
Source: RECKLI / Werkstadt Fischer Architekten
Images: Adrian Schulz (RECKLI) / Werkstadt Fischer Architekten
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