A new precast factory as flagship for Riedelsheimer
A visual highlight, energy efficient in terms of building physics: The client, Marcus Riedelsheimer GmbH, demanded a great deal of its own new precast concrete factory. The company found the solution for realizing the aesthetic façade in the Isolink for concrete façades of Schöck Bauteile GmbH. The façade anchor consists of the Combar glass-fiber composite especially designed and manufactured by Schöck. Thermal bridges are reduced to a minimum thanks to its low thermal conductivity. In addition, the material features a high tensile strength, thus it is highly load-resistant.
Major business areas of Marcus Riedelsheimer GmbH are the conventional shell construction and turnkey construction sector for private clients with single-family houses and multi-family buildings as well as industrial and commercial construction. The company established the field of structural precast components as an additional pillar, specializing in high-quality precast concrete elements for industrial and residential construction such as balconies, parapets, stairs, wall and façade elements or customized urban furniture made of concrete and elements for garden construction. The special precast elements, which were temporarily manufactured in a tented structure, are produced in the new industrial building on the factory premises now.
High-quality concrete façade in natural stone appearance
The new building covering a floor space of about 905 m² comprises a production hall (36 x 18 cm) and a separate building for the in-house carpenter‘s shop and the formwork construction. A wing for offices as well as sanitary spaces and meeting rooms is integrated in the building. The client had clearly defined the specifications for the new building: The architecture of the building should correspond to the existing company headquarters – a horizontal, elongated building structure supported by concrete block columns – taking its architectural language up. Therefore, textured formliners were used for the fair-faced concrete surfaces. The concrete was however not colored to provide a visual contrast to the existing building. „Our quality standard expected of the architecture of the new factory hall is very high. The new building is a flagship with which we want to show and communicate what we are able to produce,“ explains Marcus Riedelsheimer, General Manager of the company with the same name.
Therefore, the building was implemented under the company‘s own direction from the design to planning and production of the concrete elements and bricks for the separate building through to the complete execution. The Schöck construction product specialist was enthusiastic about the project immediately: Just the natural stone appearance shows how relatively easy it is to design an industrial hall as a visually appealing and individual building by the use of façade elements and textured formliners,“ reports Alexander Hettler, Key Account Manager Isolink at Schöck.
Reliable thermal insulation
The client decided to use concrete sandwich elements for the construction of the building envelop. The façade panels measuring approx. 7 x 2.8 cm have a three-layer structure with load-bearing layer, insulating layer and façade and/or facing layer. The load-bearing layer consists of 15 cm concrete, the insulation is made of 12 cm expanded polystyrene (EPS). The façade layer textured by means of the formliner is 8 cm thick.
Apart from the wide variety of surface design options, above all the excellent building physical properties were crucial aspects for choosing this construction method: „The thermal insulation and the avoidance of thermal bridges plaid an important role here, because the building is heated. In addition, the solid load-bearing layer provides an excellent heat storage potential. In particular, after opening the large-sized gates, the air quickly becomes warm again,“ architect Daniel Krafczyk states.
