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Intelligente Architektur 07-08 | 2003

English Translation

08 Archi-neering The Bayer AG Head Office in Leverkusen

21 Editorial Introduction and contributors

22 State of Art The Post Tower in Bonn

38 Energy technology is making the grade Interview with Matthias Schuler of Transsolar

The Bayer AG Head Office in Leverkusen:

Archi-neering
The new head office for the Bayer Corporation was designed to be transparent and hi-tech. The concept proposed by Murphy/Jahn, for which they coined the term Archi-neering in conjunction with Sobek Ingenieure, proved to be the most convincing. In 1998 Bayer invited submissions in a closed international competition for its new head office. The executive offices at Bayer have now relocated to the new building, a flat, barely 15 m high building complex. Adjacent to this is the original Bayer administration building, a high-rise designed in the 60s by HPP and soon to be demolished. It would have been too expensive to renovate and restore, according to the American architecture consultant. The new head office comprises three different styles of building: a semi-elliptical office building, an adjoining lobby and an elongated, open pergola which links the new complex with the exterior, that is the street and former building, situated in parallel. To the south elevation, the office building borders Carl-Duisberg Park: A statue there reminds us of the founder of the global corporation of the same name. A fountain in the shape of the company logo adorns the courtyard created by the semi-elliptical building. All organisational departments are accessible from the central lobby, a glazed cuboid figure. According to the architects, the lobby, the essential heart of the complex, symbolizes the progressive philosophy of the corporation, described as being transparent with clearly defined lines and structures. Non-central functions and the company car park are situated below ground level. The executive offices are on the top floor and all other offices on the first through the third floors. One of the decisive factors influencing the choice of the Murphy/Jahn concept was the proposed architectural and energy concept, described by the term Archi-neering. A form of architecture that unites the aesthetic with the technological. The structure The office building is conceived as a reinforced concrete skeleton. The roof, a flat structure of welded steel hollow profiles supported by steel columns, also extends to the central glazed lobby. The almost material-less walls of the lobby consist of large-format glass panels and are secured by vertical, tensioned steel ropes. The steel columns of the pergola are scaled upwards. As is the case with all other structurally relevant elements, the structure is characterized by light, slim and ideallycreated forms. [caption:Transparent structures: the transparency of the building is a symbol of the corporate philosophy] Energy Concept The glass faade to the south elevation comprises a double skin and is shingeled. Automatic shading lamella in the faade cavity provide shading for the offices. The thermally active floors and ceilings are very useful to cool the rooms. They are supplied with ground water delivered from the nearby river with a natural water temperature of 15 18 C. Fresh air enters the faade cavity through supply air openings in the outer skin. It is conditioned by a convector, filtered and distributed to the offices. This allows for the individually regulated conditioning of each office. A centrally regulated air extraction system collects the used air room by room below the corridors and carries it to the unconditioned lobby. The roof consists of a grid of various steel or glass panels, for example sun glare laminated or photovoltaic elements, which allow daylight to enter the building faades and adapt automatically to climatic change. It was possible to reduce energy consumption using fossil-based energy sources by more than 50% in comparison with a conventionally conditioned building and this at the same or an even higher level of comfort. 2 Heat energy was reduced to 35 kW/m a. The cooling capacity is as far as it is possible covered by natural energy sources, like 2 2 the ground water, apart from an additional 2 kW/m a pump energy. Artificial lighting has been reduced to 11 kW/m a, energy 2 consumption for ventilation is at about 8 kW/m a. The total energy consumption for HVAC and lighting is less than 120 2 kWh/m a. [caption: Faade cavity with sun glare lamella The central lobby provides a link between public and the private zones] Client Bayer AG, Leverkusen Architects Murphy/Jahn, Inc. Architects, Chicago/Illinois, USA Helmut Jahn, Sam Scaccia, Rainer Schildknecht, John Dubrow, Stephen Kern, Wolfgang Bauer, Alphonso Peluso, Rob Muller, Joachim Schuessler, Barbara Thiel-Fettes, Jan Goetze, Michael Bender Structural Engineering/Faade Werner Sobek Ingenieure, GmbH; Stuttgart, Germany Werner Sobek, Franz Tarazi, Norbert Rehle, Dietmar Klein, IGH Ingenieursgemeinschaft Hpfner mbH Energy/Climate Engineering Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH; Stuttgart, Germany Matthias Schuler, Tobias Fiedler

Editorial

Contributors in this issue: Helmut Jahn Chicago, Transsolar Energietechnik: Matthias Schuler, Thomas Lechner, Thomas Auer, Tobias Fiedler, Stefan Holst, Stefanie Reuss, Werner Klaus, Thomas Leiser, Christian Matt, Matthias Wonner, Wolfgang Kessling Stuttgart, Werner Sobek Ingenieure Stuttgart, Achilles Kttinger Rogner Mnchen, Gerhard Hausladen, Michael de Saldanha, Christina Sager Mnchen, Holger Wolpensinger Karlsruhe, Ullrich Finger Dinslaken, Jrg Fretz Steinhausen/Switzerland.

Although it does not quite count as tradition if you do something a second time, it does show a willingness to develop that certain something. Last year, for the first time, we devoted the main part of our July/August issue to the work of one office: Architectural Consultants Behnisch, Behnisch and Partner. We are continuing this type of concentrated reporting with the current summer issue. True to our belief that architects and engineers can only realize their full potential in the sense of intelligent architecture by working together as a team, our choice this year was the engineering consultants, Transsolar Energietechnik. The choice was a somewhat of a foregone conclusion as Matthias Shuler and his team have very close links to th this journal. Transsolar celebrated its 10 jubilee last year and is, therefore, only slightly older than IntelligenteArchitektur. This journal was published for the first time in 1994 and from the start, our considerations of architectural issues always looked towards progressive concepts in climatic engineering. This is evidenced by the Symposium intelligent building design, which we have now organized for the eighth time in conjunction with Transsolar. It was practically a given that the climate concepts created by the energy engineers from Stuttgart would make their way increasingly into our journal either via Transsolar or by way of products and architects chosen by us. The summary entitled exceptional cases (pages 54 and 55) contains all the contributions and projects from IntelligenteArchitektur in which Transsolar was involved. The contribution exemplary (see page 42) proves that we have, to date, not nearly published everything that the climate engineers from Stuttgart-Vaihingen have to offer. The climate concept for the Post Tower in Bonn from Murphy/Jahn marks the current highlight for Transsolar in Germany, at least vertically. Matthias Schuler, in interview (see page 38), describes exactly what moves him in the USA at the moment: Energy technology is making the grade.

The Post Tower in Bonn:


By Friedrich Dassler, intelligente architektur State of the Art There is simply no getting away from it - a skyscraper is always a status symbol. Ideally, the project planners will accept this challenge, under the leadership of the architect, as was indeed the case with the new Post Tower for the Deutsche Post World Net in Bonn. The design by Murphy/Jahn, Inc. from Chicago of the now completed building embodies the state of the art and sets the standard in terms of ecology and comfort. FD Choosing to use a star architect is a tricky matter only equal to that of working with a client of the caliber and importance of the Deutsche Post. It was, perhaps, for that very reason that Helmut Jahn and Deutsche Post World Net worked so well together. The genesis of the project with its two-phase competition has been dealt with sufficiently in specialist and other media that is now old hat. From todays point of view, a brand new skyscraper is competing with two competition models from Paul Bhm and Joachim Schrmann, both from Cologne. Any comparative contemplation at this stage would be unfair. At the end of the day, the Deutsche Post is proud to have been granted the building it wished for and the final product is truly a sight to behold. The architectural achievements of Helmut Jahn already symbolically succinct and very highly regarded in investor circles reached a new dimension as a result of his collaboration with the firms Werner Sobek Ingenieure (structural aspect) and Transsolar Energietechnik (building climatics), which was nothing short of symbiotic. This becomes all the more obvious when one considers the development of Jahns work from the Trade Fair Tower in Frankfurt to the Post Tower in Bonn. Throughout this period of time, the German, who became an American architect, rendered outstanding services to the development of the skyscraper in an European context. Nonetheless, any appraisal of an urban planning solution that situates a skyscraper on the banks of the Rhine, in Bonn, is more a question of ones world view and less one of assessment according to objective criteria. Considered an eyesore by one person, the same object may be considered by another person to be outstandingly distinctive. At this stage, one thing is certain - a skyscraper, in particular an European one, does not necessarily require a metropolitan skyline. A skyscraper is fundamentally a solitaire, like a tree that can also be adapted to suit the forest, if need be. A considerable amount of time was invested by the planners of the Bonn project in incorporating the base of the skyscraper into the immediate vicinity. First of all, the base building acts as mediator between the higher level of the approach road to the West and the lower-lying park area on the Rhine side to the East. The glazed Post Tower, which dispenses with further projections at the base of the building, and the adjoining Conference Center to the North with a cafeteria and a roof resembling a punch card, are located on this artificial plateau. The roof actually becomes a fifth facade. This extension is, on the one hand, separated from the tower by a ravine-like, somewhat dramatic passageway. On the other hand, the roof emphasizes by means of distinct separation, the position of the tower in relation to what is known as the Schrmann building. Helmut Jahn draws down the curved roof to the extent that, due to the clearly distinguishable time leap, no attempt to become caught up in the formal characteristics of either building is permitted: Bauhaus (Schrmann) meets Hi-tech (Jahn). One particular observation has been creeping through all our discussions and has provided quite a challenge since we began working with glass and double glass facades: equipping this type of building all round with the same facade design cannot be considered intelligent. The Post Tower team of planners has replied to this key question with optimized floor plan geometry and with two different facades to the North and the South elevations that have fundamentally differing features. The fact that the casual observer would not notice the two dissimilar facades is due, firstly, to the overall continuity of the design of the building. The greatest achievement of the team of architects, construction engineers and climate engineers, however, is to have brought this project to fruition without encountering a contradiction between overall design, structural work and energy requirements. One should, naturally, not forget the importance of the client who initially requested this type of building and who accompanied the progress of the project professionally, thus provoking such a level of performance on the part of the planning team. Despite the technical refinement of his details, Jahns basic architectural design remains clear and distinct. The airflowoptimized floor plan of the 162.5 m tower comprises two semi-elliptical towers set slightly apart from each other transversely and separated by a 7.4 m wide joint. This joint, which extends to the top of the building, contains the lift groups and the bridges connecting the two towers that form the overall building. It is divided vertically into nine-storey-high atria, on the glass floors of which skygardens are to be created. The atria are areas intended for use by the occupants in addition to the office space. The

atria, a fundamental element of the HVAC concept for the offices, constitute the spectacular core of the body of the skyscraper, the upward, downward and outward views from which symbolize the essential inner character of the building. The offices in the two towers provide the best possible level of transparency for the about 2000 occupants. The glazing of the double facade stretches from floor to ceiling, as does the glazing that creates the interior room dividers. The decisive factor here is the maximum utilization of daylight to reduce energy consumption. Shading technology, daylight and artificial light regulation and air-conditioning are automated and optimized, whereby the occupant of the room can open his/her window at any time and adjust the room climate to suit his/her needs. Each room has individual access to the house HVAC system by means of a specially developed room climate control device, which is integrated into a stainless steel column situated inside each office beside the glass door. This device also acts as an employee identification system, per radio, and as a key to the room. A further highlight of this project is the reduction in space requirement for the HVAC system on the 41 , the top floor. The boardroom, situated behind the approximately 3-storey high outer glass skin and protected from the wind, forms a penthouse with a generous patio and also terminates the tower to the top. Consequently, an area that in former times would have been occupied by chillers and HVAC systems is now the location where the fortunes of the global logistics group, Deutsche Post World Net, are managed and that with great vision. The new Post Tower in Bonn has, therefore, forced the bar to be raised another notch in terms of the state of the art of skyscraper design. The goal of the architect, which was to create for the client a building that would correspond to his corporate vision for the coming years and which would point the way technically and ecologically, whilst always incorporating the highest standard of workplace quality, has been achieved impressively. For further details on the design and the energy concept of the Post Tower, please see the sections Structural Engineering and Energy Design. Structural Engineering Werner Sobek Ingenieure On the structural aspect of the Post Tower The new Deutsche Post AG head office in Bonn was planned and designed by a team consisting of the firms Murphy/Jahn, Chicago, Werner Sobek Ingenieure, Stuttgart/Frankfurt and Transsolar Energietechnik, Stuttgart. The building symbolizes a new style of high-rise office with regard to urban planning integration, usage, technology and the well being of the occupants. This to date unachieved fusion of the architectural and the engineering became a reality due to the fact that all members of the planning team working on the project were involved from the earliest possible stage. The Tower The 85 m long and 40 m wide building consists of two semi-elliptical towers set slightly apart transversely. The building stretches over 41 storeys to a height of 162.5 m. The delicacy and transparency of the design are emphasized in particular by the slim steel columns in addition to the skygardens located at every ninth storey between the two towers. The steel columns are scaled upwards, starting at a diameter of 760 mm in the lobby and reducing to 406 mm in the uppermost floors. The inner steel core consists of round or square steel girders or welded I-profiles. The steel outer shell, 6 mm thick, acts as a formwork for the concrete infill of the column. This concrete infill serves as a firewall for the inner steel structure. The loads are distributed via the downstand beams to the columns. In addition, hollow girders are also integrated into the structure at skygarden level. In order to optimize the required bracing while retaining as much transparency as possible, the core of each of the two towers is connected diagonally to the other by means of a cross, of which there are ten in total. The crosses are placed at every ninth floors, beneath the skygardens. Additional support is provided by what is known as outriggers, consisting of steel lattices that connect the core of the towers with the outlying columns. They are inserted on the house technology floor (21 storey). In addition to the crosses, glass bridges, resting on parabola-shaped haunched steel girders, connect the two towers. Four skygardens, situated at equal distance through the height of the building, span and fill out the area between the towers. The floors and ceilings of the skygarden communication levels, which are 7 m wide and 32 m high, consist of translucent glass resting directly on T-profiles. The glass consists of 1.50 x 3.50 m VSG glass panels. These panels consist of 2 x 12 mm TSG panels and an upper wear disc (8 mm ESG) with anti-slip, translucent etching. The T-profiles supporting the glass at skygarden level are jointed to the haunched, 120 mm wide and up to 400 mm high glass floor girders. These glass floor girders distribute their loads via integrated steel girders to the ceilings, whereby a horizontal roller is included in one of the towers. The roller eliminates pressure forces in the glass floor girders, which could result from
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differing movements of the two towers. The reinforced concrete ceilings in the office area are coffered ceilings with a total height of only 28 cm. They rest on an upstand beam that runs between the columns. The lighting elements are adjacent to the downstand beams and can be used for the indirect lighting of the inner rooms. The ceilings are simply painted, there are no suspended ceilings. Heating and cooling pipes are integrated into the ceiling and rest on the lower reinforcement. The Facade The building cladding is a double skin facade, which allows for open windows, even on the upper floors and which is an integral part of the energy concept of the building, based on minimum energy consumption. The facade and the glazed floors situated around the building permit the highest possible level of transparency and light and provide all areas of the building with daylight. The shingled south-facing facade, acting as an outer skin or secondary facade, consists of 1.5 m wide exterior panels, tilted at approx. 8. The 2 x 8 mm or 2 x 10 mm float glass panels are anchored in a vertical I-shaped stainless steel profile with round, 50 mm wide flanges. The north facade is not shingled, but has alternate vertical louvers. The dead loads of the facade are hung every ninth floor by means of vertical tension members and carried into the skygarden levels via steel cantilever brackets. On the other floors, the facade is fixed by horizontal stainless steel wind needles. The wind needles are jointed at both ends with a spherical cap to the ceiling or the upright, and therefore, take on only tension or compression. The wind needles have a haunched cross section and are maximum 30 mm in diameter and 1.50 m long. The horizontal cavities have stainless steel ropes with a diameter of 6 mm, which are anchored back into the ceiling on four horizontally haunched steel swords each side of the building. The ropes stabilize the secondary facade horizontally and take up the brush wind loads. The inner facade consists of floor to ceiling insulating glass panels, structured to the exterior in the conventional manner. The panels contain windows that can be opened, thus allowing for the individual ventilation of each room. The skygardens between the two towers are fronted to the exterior (i.e. to the north-east and the south-west) with double-glazed insulating glass. These facades have centrally regulated louvers, which depending on the prevailing wind conditions serve to either ventilate or to extract air. The wind loads on the skygarden facade are distributed to the facade girders via wind needles. The facade girders are jointed to the ceiling with a horizontally movable roller, so that relative movements of both towers are possible. The dead loads of the skygarden facades are hung upwards over nine storeys. The loads are distributed there via cantilever brackets to hollow girders resistant to torsion and bending and on to the reinforced levels. These edge girders are anchored without pressure between the reinforced ceilings. At one end of each of the semi-elliptical towers, the outer facade continues beyond the edge of the building by about four facade panels. The wind loads on this section of the facade are captured by steel hollow girders, haunched in the floor plan and partly in the elevation, which are situated on each floor. The dead loads of the wing facade are distributed every ninth floor via vertical and diagonal tension members to the columns in the corner zones. The Roof The roof area of the towers contains a continuous, approx. 12 m high glass facade, behind which are located the roof garden and a penthouse. The penthouse, venue for Deutsche Post AG board meetings, is enclosed by a double-curved steel beam grid with stainless steel or glass panels. The wind loads on the facade, which is drawn out beyond the roof level, are captured by oval-shaped steel columns (406 x 560 mm) and distributed to the ceiling or to the steel columns below. Horizontal loads from the facade are distributed via wind needles to 80 mm high, haunched steel hollow profiles that run between the oval columns at intervals of 6 meters in the floor plan. The dead loads of this facade are hung upwards and distributed to the oval columns via haunched steel cantilevered brackets. A 12 m wide by 5 m deep room beneath the roof garden stretches over two storeys. It serves as a conservatory where the occupants can rest and relax. The Conference Building To the north elevation, the tower joins a 2-storey conference building, the roof of which comprises a singly curved steel beam grid of 150 mm x 420 mm hollow profiles in a 1.50 m x 1.50 m grid. As with the penthouse, the conference building is fronted with stainless steel and glass panels. To the northwest elevation, the roof curves downwards, thereby becoming a facade. The steel beam grid is secured by steel columns that are set into the ceiling over the first floor or held by 18 m high haunched steel columns with a maximum diameter of 320 mm.

Climate Concept Stefanie Reuss and Matthias Schuler About the development and realization of the energy and comfort concept for the Deutsche Post Tower in Bonn Breathing in the Wind best describes the airflow through the various facade skins and the interior of the new Deutsche Post head office in Bonn. The project, which is completed and has been in use since the beginning of the year, strives to consistently integrate comfort and energy concepts into the architectural aspect. This relies, without braces and belt, on the airflow through the double skin facade, in total realization that extreme supply air temperatures are drawn from there. This was the only way to avoid the need for a backup ventilation and cooling system for the extreme seasons, which is the case with a lot of other projects involving a double skin facade. As a result, increased investment in the facade was compensated for by savings in the HVAC budget. Regardless of the season or the exterior temperature, the facade of the Post Tower serves to provide and distribute supply air, the corridors are exhaust air collectors and the skygarden zones act as an air extraction chimney. Consequently, neither vertical supply air nor extractor shafts are required to ventilate the normal offices along the outer facade, which can mean considerable savings in a high-rise building with a number of floors. Furthermore, due to the ventilation units and the exhaust air collection, an entire floor that would otherwise have been needed for the technical equipment, could now be used as office space. How it all began The client requirements as stated in the competition brief for the new Deutsche Post AG head office in Bonn included the following: a high level of workplace comfort for the employees, a user-friendly building with louvers and limited individual access to heating and cooling controls, a minimum energy requirement for heating (25% below WSVO 95/german energy conservation code) and the integration of natural energy sources. The minimization of running costs for heating, cooling and ventilation was also to be taken into consideration. In this respect, the aims had already been set very high and when we on the planning team then opted for a high-rise solution, the challenge was perfect. Our objective Our aim at Transsolar was to create a working environment in which each individual employee could regulate his/her required level of comfort without being limited to a pre-determined heating temperature. It should also be possible to open the windows in the skyscraper at all times, to select the room cooling temperature and to a certain extent to be able to set the quantity of prewarmed or pre-cooled supply air in the working zones. Fangers criteria for comfort served us here as a basic indicator. According to Fanger, interior heating and cooling is considerably more pleasant if it is mainly radiation-based as opposed to being conditioned purely with air. The provision of a pleasant level of brightness guarantees individual access to sunshade control and to the level of artificial light in each room. The basic concept the house as an air channel Breathing in the wind with a panoramic view of the Rhine valley was the starting point for Transsolar, who proposed a full glass facade for the 40-storey building. However, a high level of transparency, particularly from the exterior, can only be achieved if coated sun protection glazing can be avoided. This requires consequently a high-energy use for the room cooling system or an exterior shading device. As the cooling system is, for the most part, dependent on the natural cooling source of two ground water wells, the cooling requirement had to be reduced to a minimum. The shading device had to be extremely stable or needed additional protection in order for it to function properly, even on a fine but windy summers day at a height of 140 m. This was done by adding to the inner facade of gas-filled insulating glass a highly transparent single glazing, thus creating a vertical and horizontal open facade. This cavity can buffer extreme exterior temperatures in winter with a minimum of ventilation by means of controlled facade openings and can use solar gains to pre-warm the supply air. In the summer, the fully opened louvers allow for maximum ventilation and extraction of heat from the solar gains that have mainly been absorbed on the shading device. The facade cavity also ensures that the windows can be opened even in windy conditions. If one considers the pressure pattern around the skyscraper, for example, in a prevailing West wind, one will see considerable differences in pressure levels along the facade of one of the towers, from built-up pressure in the flow area right up to a high suction effect due to the increase in air velocity along the facade. The double-skin feature of the building is tasked with reducing this difference in pressure to the extent that doors and windows can be opened in a south-west or south-east facing office

without the risk of doors slamming or desks being blown clear of papers. This has as well solved the problem of door opening forces that are too high due to the relocation of the pressure differences into the building. In addition, the supply air for the offices is distributed through the facade cavity, whereby one must also be aware of the fact that depending on ventilation, the position of the sun and prevailing exterior conditions, temperatures may occur that are considerably above room temperature. Nonetheless, the building draws its entire supply air from there and eliminates the need for a second auxiliary supply air system. It was, of course, evident that each room would have its own individually controlled heater. Together with John Durbrow of Murphy/Jahn, the idea was proposed to develop the heater to the extent that it could also carry out the basic ventilation of the room. Due to the open facade cavity, the windows can be used as a source of fresh air, provided an acoustic connection with neighbouring offices is not a problem. The heater, additionally defined as a soundinsulated supply air element, can also assume the pre-cooling of supply air. In combination with an individual airflow control it will allow for a certain individual cooling temperature regulation in the room, the basic cooling of which is covered the building cooling system in the open concrete ceiling. Concept development and detailed assessment Theory and reality The above approaches were analyzed, examined, expanded and adapted during the planning phase by all the planning partners, as sometimes the actual realization of a lovely idea does have its problems. When detailing the supply air convectors, for example, during intense discussions with Professor Rakoczy based on fluid dynamic simulation and wind canal measurements, we realized that a mechanical support for the air displacement was necessary. The team managed to convince the technical consultants at Deutsche Post of this innovative idea although it had not yet been realized consistently in any reference project. While the consultants representing our client examined all approaches critically, they were more than prepared to accept new ideas once they had been provided with sufficient evidence of the validity of the idea. This is one of the requirements for innovation and indeed our most successful projects to date are the result of close collaboration with clients who are open to new ideas and prepared to tread new paths. The pressure conditions in the double-skin facade in a prevailing wind were re-created in parallel by Transsolar using computational fluid dynamics and by the Institute of Industrial Aerodynamics (IFI) at the Institute of Technology, Aachen, in a wind canal. This allowed us to calibrate the two ensuing models by means of the building airflow. The correspondence between the two models was good in the case of open louvers, whereby the external pressure conditions on the inner facade were reflected as slightly reduced. The theoretical approach of pressure equalizing in an open, that is a double skin facade without horizontal or vertical separations, is based on the principle of the main drop in pressure at the louvers in the exterior facade and the cross flow in the facade cavity along the facade. The important background to this is that the pressure level can hardly be reduced through the louvers in a closed double facade system: after a certain time the full compression or suction effect is evident on the inner facade and/or the door leading to the corridor. However, due to the cross flow in the facade cavity the pressure differences behind the louvers are reduced, which means that the incoming air flow rate at the louvers is limited. We developed this principle for the project DLZ Neckarsulm, a 20-storey high-rise building with a floor by floor continuous double skin facade, and tested it in practice. The first measurements in the wind tunnel showed, in contradiction to the results from the flow calculations, no reduction of the inner facade pressure when the area of the facade openings was reduced. Intense consultation with Professor Gerhardt from the Institute of Industrial Aerodynamics in Aachen about possible differences between the models provided the explanation. In the wind tunnel model, the facade louvers were represented by holes in the outer facade cladding. In the case of the closed facade louvers, except for 20 percent opening, the team had simply left every fifth hole open and had covered over the holes in between. With that, however, a reduction in pressure did not materialize behind these relatively large openings, and therefore there was no reduction in the pressure profile from the exterior to the interior. The correct model with a reduced number of holes along the entire facade brought the expected correspondence between the wind tunnel and the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) models. The ventilation of the facade cavity by means of pure stock effect was measured and confirmed parallel with the simulation with a dynamic building model on TRNSYS and flow simulation on a 1:30 model. It showed that while the nine open facade storeys did lead to an increase in air temperature in the facade, a greater chimney effect was created due to the greater height, which as a consequence led to a decrease in temperature difference towards the outside. Bringing the plan to fruition from prototype development to tests during the planning phase of the project, there was no decentral under floor air equipment on the market. The company that came the nearest to developing the equipment we

required was FSL in Mannheim, a small but incredibly creative firm that has been trying for years to push the issue of decentral ventilation on the market. The first prototype was developed and tested in detail together with Josef Ormai from FSL. It must be said that our requirements of max. 29 dBA at 90 m/h supply air flow, combined with the limited space in the raised floor, involved considerable development work. Of course, the equipment on the one hand should not permit a return flow from the building into the double skin facade and, on the other hand, should be capable of displacing the required level of fresh air even at areas of reduced facade pressure. Real scale mock-up tests were carried out at the testing station for outer facades at the University of Stuttgart with a real testing area with heat source, building cooling system and the decentral supply air equipment. The tests confirmed the ventilation efficiency of the intended displacement ventilation, the maximum room temperature of 27 C at an exterior temperature of 32 C and the robustness of the equipment in respect of condensation. The presence of condensation was only then ascertained in the under floor convector when the water inlet temperature was far below dew point of the exterior conditions. On the other hand, it was shown that a supply air temperature of 16 C could be realized at floor level without a reduction in comfort. This is due to the fact that already a sufficient turbulency is created at the supply air filter at a low airflow rate the user can request maximum 120 m/h in order to fulfil the criteria for comfort even at a distance of one meter. From prototype to production, how to maintain the system? Almost 2,000 individual ventilation units have been installed in the Post Tower for the decentralized system. This involved, initially, a considerable level of development work on the part of the manufacturer, Trox/FSL. Each appliance has, in addition to the conventional convector, through which fresh air passes, a fresh air filter, a flap valve with a magnetic lock, patented by the developers from Mannheim, and a three-stage ventilator. It was necessary to be able to clean and maintain the system in a very short space of time, in order to minimize maintenance costs. The convector was, therefore, connected flexibly to the 4-pipe airconditioning system with wire-armoured pipes and carried sideways on a track. In this way, it is easy to lift the convector when the grill is lifted, to clean it and the convector shaft. The supply air filter, which can be removed when the floor covering is lifted, should be changed once or twice a year. All other mechanical components such as ventilator or flap valve are on a type of sled, which is secured with one screw and which can be easily removed. Therefore, tedious repair work at the scene can be avoided. If there are problems, the sled is simply removed and replaced, the cables reinserted and thats it! The annual equipment service, which begins with a visual examination, is also carried out in this manner, thus reducing the time required to a minimum. Experience with other systems has shown that the replacement rate is very low with high-quality ventilators and that the annual maintenance and service costs are in the region of one to two percent of the overall investment costs. Lessons learnt from the project Deutsche Post After approximately six months of operation and an adjustment phase required to achieve optimal control of the facade and the individual appliances, most of the systems are up and running. The records of the building behaviour will tell, in time, if the longterm expectations of the building are fulfilled.

Interview with Matthias Schuler of Transsolar:


Energy technology is making the grade Five years ago IntelligenteArchitektur carried its first interview with the Transsolar boss, Matthias Schuler. Since then, the Stuttgart engineering consultants have become increasingly influential in project planning on the international stage, their leading people are involved in training architects and even North America has discovered energy technology. By Friedrich H. Dassler I have known Matthias Schuler for about ten years now and one thing I have never found him to be is a star. Perhaps I have missed something. If some development has been overlooked, then it is probably first of all down to his uncomplicated manner, or his nature. Is he Swabian? Im not so sure. His intonation would indicate he is. We have often sat together (ghockt, as they say in Stuttgart) in the past and discussed projects, publications and the annual symposium Intelligent Building Design which we have organized together very successfully for eight years now. However, the stars who appear at these events are always other people: from Helmut Jahn to Shigeru Ban, from Ken Yeang to Ben von Berkel. With all due respect, the architects seem to be more prone to that kind of thing than engineers. On the other hand, Matthias Schuler, consultant engineer, appears natural, relaxed, even amusing, but then he suddenly becomes absolutely professional once the discussion shifts to his own topic Energy technology for buildings. This article is not and cannot be a psychological profile of Matthias Schuler. It will deal with professional performance and positions and their meaning in the context of advancements and changes in construction and in architecture. The various aspects of personality, as we know, cannot be separated from each other. It is not just about wanting to do good things, it is also about being able to sell them to other people or to architects, even if these people are in California or living somewhere else around the globe. Matthias Schuler has discovered, in this context, his very own personal and incredibly successful style. The interview and the inserted pictures are, therefore, not part of a star cult but should be seen as mutually complementary elements. Dassler: Mr. Schuler, we had our first interview in the spring of 1998 (IA 12). To what extent has the world of energy technology changed for you in the meantime? Schuler: From the point of view of thermodynamics, nothing has changed. The laws of physics, which provide the basis for our energy and comfort concepts for buildings, are still the same. What has actually changed is the awareness of the architects and the planning engineers that an integrated planning approach, which can also change the architecture, can lead to improved buildings in terms of energy and comfort. Everybody is talking about integrated planning today, the potential has been recognized, even though the actual application may still be somewhat problematic. The economic situation in Germany is putting pressure on project budgets and the second rent, the operating costs, have become an important factor in winning tenants. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to socialize the actual energy costs, that is the distribution of the financial damage caused by the power authorities to society. This is prevented by the fear that the delicate plant that is the economy could be damaged with higher energy costs, although the connection is no longer denied. Interestingly enough, insurers and reinsurers are becoming involved in The experiment with planet earth, as was demonstrated lately by a very good exhibition in the Technical Museum in Munich. I believe that this has come about less as a result of environmentally related conviction than awareness of the overall context. Dassler: You are working in the premier league of architects these days. Is there a difference between an architect from LA or Chicago and one from Stuttgart or Dortmund, in terms of collaboration? Schuler: Yes, there are of course big differences in the work in terms of the planning process. This is particularly the case in our area of work as the energy prices in USA are considerably below those in Germany, even though they have managed to push through price increases of 100 percent and more, at least on a local level. As a result, the economic pressure of operating costs of a building does not play as significant a role over there, particularly as many administration projects are rental buildings. In addition, the engineers involved in planning in America work more in a serving function, that is to say their job is to implement the idea of the architect, which is to ensure that the building works, with a little more air. Helmut Jahn, however, is very much aware of the importance of the behaviour of his buildings from an energy and comfort point of view. As a result, he integrates these requirements into his architectural concept these days, something we have seen in the project Deutsche Post. Differences can be seen depending on the league in which architects such as Helmut Jahn, Frank O. Gehry, Richard Meyer and Kazuyo Sejima are playing. These people are used to being made feel special and success has made very strong personalities out of them all. Now and again there will be an absolute no to a suggestion, something that drives us to despair. But, it also forces us to look for other solutions that will fit in with the architectural requirements. There are fewer differences in the day-to-day work between our project engineers and the respective architect, which demonstrates the professionalism of this league, although the bosses do have to be consulted in the case of particularly tricky issues. Language is only a problem right at the beginning. The time difference is sometimes problematic as work is only beginning in Santa Monika at 9 am local time just as we are finishing work in Stuttgart at 6 pm. Dassler:There are two firms these days, Transsolar and Transplan. How is the planning branch developing? Schuler: We set up Transplan three years ago because the market, that is to say, client and architect, was increasingly irritated by the additional planning discipline, climate engineering, and they wanted to have all technical aspects coordinated from one source. We didnt think it would be a good idea to become a planning consultant or to integrate Transsolar, particularly given the fact that working with experienced professional planners had been a great experience for us. Transplan now offers general planning consultancy in the technical end of things from climate engineering through the mechanical engineers to building physics. Transplan works on projects in conjunction with experienced project partners such as Transsolar for climate engineering. The fact that there is only one overall contact has simplified matters for the client and for the architects. This type of service has been well received on the market, particularly internationally where, for example, building physics is not established as an individual planning discipline. Transplan has a staff of seven at the moment with an upward trend and is involved in projects in Germany, North America, the Middle East and China. Dassler: What are your current expectations of advanced technical building equipment? Schuler: Advanced technical building equipment attempts to ensure that as little technology as possible is needed to provide the HVAC and lighting necessary for the required level of comfort and, in addition, that energy consumption is kept as low as possible.

It must also demonstrate the flexibility to adapt to changing overall conditions and requirements. The building management system plays an important role here as responsible planning minimizes the need for supplemental safety factors and is therefore dependent on an exact system control. The commissioning of a building is crucially important. A certain period of time should be scheduled for commissioning before moving into the building. In our climate, the mechanical systems for heating, cooling and ventilating can be reduced considerably, if it is designed around reliable shading and typical inner loads, minimized according to use and requirements. In future, decentral solutions that are possibly already integrated into the faade module, will be a fixture on the market. Pre-production will have to play a greater role. It doesnt make sense and it is no guarantee of quality if many of the processes for the technical installation of a multi-storey project still resemble a prototype. Dassler: Architectural faculties are doing their best to win Matthias Schuler for a chair of architecture. When will we have Transarch? Schuler: Our teaching activities in the University of applied science in Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern and Harvard and Yale, where in fact four of the six director partners of Transsolar teach, cover the areas building technology, building physics, building materials and their influence on architectural design. We dont teach design but technical-physical basics, requirements and ideas for architectural design. For that reason, there will be no Transarch as a branch of Transsolar, if that is what you mean. Our teaching reaches many young architects who are very interested in sustainable building and who will be planning the new buildings and renovations of tomorrow. Dassler: What form does your teaching activity in the USA take? What have you learnt from it? Schuler: As a Visiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the teaching involves background courses and theory lectures and design studios. In the beginning, two years ago, I supervised the design studio work together with Toshiko Mori, Professor for Practice in Architecture and we chose the design task a small administration building in Chicago specifically so that the students could incorporate the material from my theory lectures into their own design. I was present at every second one of the weekly tutorials between lecturer and student, which is a common feature at American universities, and I had the opportunity to support the integration of an energy and comfort concept into the student design. Working together with ten students was very intensive but as a result of direct implementation they retained the material very well. Something astonishing happened in my following spring semester as I took over the lecture Building Environmental System from a colleague, where attendance by all students is a requirement. It happened that only about 50 percent of the 55 students attended the lectures after I stopped keeping attendance lists and placed the lecture notes on the course web page before the lecture. When I enquired as to the reason for low attendance, I was told that the importance of the design studio and other courses made attendance at the lecture very difficult. All the students appeared at the final exam. Many of the faces simply werent familiar for me from the lectures. Despite the open-book method at the exam, that is the use of all lecture material is permitted during the exam, five students failed, which caused me almost as much stress as it did the students themselves. Because, if students or parents are paying $ 40,000 a year they silently expect to be brought through the exams. The university considers failed students to be the responsibility of the lecturer. Many of these students just considered the lecture to be a compulsory part of the course and had not made the connection with their work in progress in the design studio. This spring, I offered a seminar to accompany the design studio work, presenting a lot of background information on the topic sustainable building which could then be applied individually to the current design task. The 15 students who participated on this course were from nine different studios with very different design tasks, from a library in Shenzao, to a mall in Boston and even on to an urban planning study in Mexico City. The incorporation here of the content of my lecture into the design task was very successful. Toshiko Mori, who has been head of the Faculty of Architecture since last September, and myself want to further develop this type of integration of background lectures and design. Dassler: You recently set up a desk in New York. Do you believe that architects in the USA, under the Bush administration, have a need for advanced energy technology made in Germany or are investors and clients the ones who are interested in this? Schuler: Greening in Architecture has been the topic of discussion for a number of years now in America. Young architects, above all, are the people who are taking a look at Europe and seeking to follow the sustainable building approach. As regards investors and clients, it is still only a few isolated cases that take up the cause. As I was saying, energy plays a less important part in a project because of the somewhat lower costs. The interesting thing here is that you have company bosses who see sustainable building as leading to an improvement in the quality of the workplace and expect increased productivity and identification of their employees with the workplace as a result. Thus a sustainable architecture with integrated concepts for economic reasons. A positive side effect of this is that the buildings consume less energy. Dassler: What do you think are the chances of a sustainable reduction in the energy consumption of buildings in your own country? Schuler: As regards new buildings, administration buildings and their mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning systems will have to be included in an expanded energy saving regulations. We could use the example of regulation for non-residential buildings that is already in place in England. It is simply not enough to concentrate on the heating requirements of nonresidential buildings when, on primary energy considerations the need for ventilation and cooling clearly exceeds that for heating. Artificial light should also be included here as it is the cause of a lot of heat being pumped into the building, which must then be cooled down by consuming more energy. Another aspect that must be dealt with is the renovation of a building from an energy point of view. The legislators should force renovation with the staggered introduction of recommended values for heating, cooling and lighting. One additional effect would be, as a study at the Wuppertal Institute has shown, the kick-start of an annual building turnover, which our construction industry badly needs. This would ensure jobs, save resources and protect the environment for generations to come. Dassler: How important are projects involving existing buildings, renovations, in the overall scheme of things at Transsolar? Schuler: We have had years where a third of our projects involved renovation. At the moment, I estimate it is about 20 percent. In Stuttgart we worked on the projects Zeppelin and Kronen-Carr together with the architects Auer + Weber and Partner and Michel and Wolf where we influenced facade and comfort concepts. Of course, the general situation is often a lot more limited with renovation than is the case with new buildings and quite often the Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments has a say and, for example, prevents the use of an exterior shading device, as was the case in the Rommelmhle project (see following article). If this happens to be the case, we are forced to consider other solutions, which is also a challenge for us. The project Altes Zeughaus in Berlin, home to the German Historical Museum since the early 1990s, has led to a totally new conditioning technology. This has led in turn to the creation of appliances developed in close collaboration with our partner in industry, LTG. We are currently working on an energy study for the renovation of Mies van der Rohes Crown Hall at the IIT in Chicago. As you can imagine, this is not simply a case of installing exterior shading devices and insulation glazing: we have to put a lot of thought into other solutions here.

Dassler: Is there a substantial change in architecture against the backdrop of energy savings and climate protection? Schuler: Architecture can change if a planning team comprising architects, structural engineers, building technicians and climate engineers sets itself the target of sustainable building as a basic requirement for the project, which then results in improved comfort and reduced energy consumption. And this will not necessarily lead to the creation only of insulated igloos, as some renowned architects feared would be the case after the introduction of the first energy regulation. However, if it is of considerable importance for an architect that a non-insulated concrete wall should continue from the inside to the outside, then the energy saving stipulations will force him to adopt a different solution. I believe that the architecture of today should accept the fact that limited energy resources and climate protection are now a fact of life, as is the case with fire protection or access issues, and use this as a basis for creating new ideas. One example of this is the lobby of the LVA Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, with its solar chimney to ventilate the lobby, which we designed together with Behnisch consultants. Dassler: At the moment you are involved in projects with Frank O. Gehry. Tell us something about that collaboration. Schuler: Our first collaboration with Gehry LLP Consultants was the project Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, in which glass roofs are planned for many parts of the building. Jrg Schlaich was the planning partner for this project and he recommended us to Frank Gehry. The idea was to realise in as far as possible the architects ideas for transparency and also to keep the rooms as comfortable as possible for the museum visitors in terms of heat and visual comfort with as low energy consumption a possible. According to our first calculations, there was no way we could avoid interfering with the design of the roofs. We then set out our requirements and two weeks later we received the roof design modified accordingly. What I find fascinating is the approach of these architects, who are often accused of being formalistic. On the contrary, the project requirements are solved, often over months, using cubes for the various programme functions and in model form to begin with, before an outer shape can give the project its appearance. All scales of models have priority at Gehrys office, from mass models to one-to-one room models. Our requirements in respect to glass quality, roof shapes, openings, shading and ventilation concepts were all analysed in detail but generally taken seriously. The fritted glass construction, proposed by us, was approved as a result of a 1:1 mockup, which I personally lifted onto one of the skylights at the Gehry office in Santa Monika together with one of the project architects. Gehry has come back to us now and again with further projects in Toronto, Manhattan and Qatar. Dassler: Do you have your own personal criteria for architectural quality today? Schuler: I think youre having me on with that question, Mr. Dassler. I will answer it from the point of view of an engineer and of my understanding of architecture which I have developed during my work with architects over the past 15 years and from which I have learnt a considerable amount. There is a phrase I try to get through to myself and my colleagues at Transsolar: We build houses for people to dwell in, work in and live in not to save energy. So, architectural quality is directly connected to quality from the point of view of the user. And, in our climate and with our style of living today, a good relationship with daylight is top priority. Variety is also important, as regards lighting strength, as with the temperature of the rooms. The occupants should not have to die a death from the heat nor be exposed to unpleasant draughts. But, a certain change in the temperature of the rooms is possible even with comfort criteria. Certainly, houses with small windows are easier to handle from an energy point of view, but personally, I prefer a generous relationship with the world outside. And luckily enough, glass is one of the most innovative building materials of the past few years. Dassler: What do think should be improved at Transsolar over the next two years? Schuler: (laughs and remains silent)

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