Ottobock Science Center, Berlin
VITERRA Development
Owner / Developer
Otto Bock HealthCare
Architect
Gnädinger Architekten
Building Function
Competence Centre for Health Care Technology
Status
Completed 06/2009
approx. 1.500 m²
Height
approx. 22 m
Technical Features
- Stick system facade, straight mullions, curved transoms, aluminium
- Structural glazing facade, partly curved
We provided
Consultancy
Sound facade decisions start with a clear understanding of the project’s starting point.
- Priedemann organises the available project information, design intent, use, and facade-related technical and external requirements.
- Together with the project participants, objectives, priorities, constraints and unresolved questions are made visible.
- This creates a reliable basis for the next design steps and for decisions before the facade concept is developed in greater detail.
- Priedemann identifies and structures the project information, requirements, objectives and constraints relevant to facade planning.
- These may include design intent, use, technical and energy-related requirements, local conditions, and quality, cost and programme objectives.
- Unresolved questions, dependencies and competing priorities are made explicit and translated into clear decision criteria.
- This creates a reliable basis for early facade design and subsequent planning.
- The subjects reviewed and documented depend on the project stage and agreed scope.
Decision criteria and priorities
- Not every facade requirement has the same priority within a project.
- Design intent, use, technical requirements, local conditions, quality, cost and programme objectives can influence one another.
- Establishing the project basis therefore also means structuring these requirements and making potential conflicts visible.
- The resulting criteria provide a shared basis against which later options and decisions can be assessed consistently.
Early facade design begins once the strategic objectives and principal requirements of a project are sufficiently understood for possible directions to be developed.
- Priedemann translates this basis into options for design, materials and construction, considered alongside technical requirements and project-specific constraints.
- The comparison makes differences and trade-offs visible, and a preferred direction is developed further.
- The purpose is not to complete the technical detailing, but to establish a traceable design basis for subsequent development.
- The criteria, sketches and documentation included depend on the project and agreed appointment.
- Early facade design develops possible design, material and construction directions from the project objectives and requirements.
- Priedemann considers relevant facade types, principle details, interfaces, and technical and operational requirements.
- Options are described clearly and compared against agreed criteria.
- This allows architectural intent, technical viability and project-specific implications to be assessed together.
- The outcome is a robust design direction that provides a basis for subsequent system development and technical design.
Technical facade design develops an agreed facade solution into coordinated technical information for implementation.
- Details, components, connections and interfaces are brought together with requirements for construction, materials, building physics, acoustics, fire and safety.
- The required level of development depends on the project, procurement model and appointment.
- This creates a consistent basis for subsequent shop, production and installation planning.
- Technical facade design develops an agreed facade solution in sufficient detail for subsequent implementation.
- Depending on the appointment, Priedemann develops principle details, connections, layers, components, materials and dimensions, and coordinates interfaces with adjacent construction.
- Structural, building-physics, acoustic, fire and safety requirements are considered to the agreed design depth.
- The result is coordinated design information that can provide a basis for shop, production and installation drawings.
- The precise scope is defined for each project.
Facade specifications and tender documentation translate developed facade design into clear technical requirements for tendering and bid comparison.
- Priedemann structures information on construction, materials, details, interfaces and quality criteria and brings the relevant design documents together.
- Depending on the project, this can include technical preliminaries, specifications, quantity information or trade boundaries.
- The scope and function of the documents depend on the procurement and responsibility model.
- Priedemann translates the agreed facade design into technical specifications and tender documentation.
- Requirements, quality criteria, materials, components, interfaces and required evidence are structured and described clearly.
- Depending on the appointment, quantities, component schedules and other technical appendices may be included.
- The documents provide a consistent technical basis for bids and the subsequent award process.
- The scope and responsibility for the complete tender package are agreed with the client.
The supervision of assembly and installation is particularly important for us, to ensure the agreed quality. Our principle is that deviations from the agreed planning must be identified at an early stage, documented and the implementation corrected. This controlling refers both to production and manufacturing as well as to the assembly on the building site:
Regular inspection of production and assembly in the factory- Verification of compliance with the approved design, ensuring compliance with the agreed qualities, standards and test series
- Regular reporting on production progress; the reports contain recommendations for possible improvements as well as a list of unfulfilled services, performance arrears, defects identified
- Verification of compliance with the approved design, ensuring compliance with the agreed qualities, standards and test series
- Inspection of examples of facade sections as reference values for determining the quality of workmanship – benchmark inspections
- Involvement in performance tests on the facade on the building site (water impermeability, sound insulation, blower door test, etc.)
- Random inspection of the installation work on the building site
- Regular reporting on the installation work including the identification of discrepancies with the original planning
Specials
Priedemann uses computer-based simulation where standardised calculation methods are no longer sufficient. This covers room-comfort simulation based on ISO 7730 together with heating and cooling loads, and, for complex systems, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, including sizing smoke-extraction openings. The aim is a reliable basis for concrete design decisions on critical rooms and systems.
Priedemann uses thermal and airflow simulations to investigate the behaviour of the facade, interior and building services under defined conditions. Input data for the building, use, climate and technical systems are translated into coordinated models. Depending on the brief, the analysis considers room temperatures, comfort, heating and cooling loads, airflow or temperature distribution.
Critical areas and the implications of possible options become visible. The findings support design decisions but do not replace measurement of the completed building in operation.
What simulation outputs can show
Simulation can provide more than a single performance value. Depending on the model, the analysis can consider room-air temperatures, thermal comfort, heating and cooling loads, airflow velocities and temperature distributions in the air or at surfaces. CFD simulation can also be used for defined smoke-extraction scenarios and to examine smoke-extraction or make-up-air openings. The important limitation is that every result applies to the assumptions and boundary conditions defined for that particular model.
The facade is the interface through which a building communicates with its surroundings. As a media facade, it becomes the medium itself: depending on the message, level of detail and viewing distance, the size of the required ‘pixels’ ranges from a single LED to an entire facade or window element. Priedemann develops the facade concept this requires and integrates the media facade into the overall design, rather than treating it as a technical add-on.
Priedemann develops media facades as an integral part of the facade and building concept. Design, facade construction, media technology, substructure, maintenance and operation are coordinated across the relevant interfaces. Depending on the appointment, technical requirements, performance information and a buildable facade concept are developed and coordinated with specialist partners. Electrical design, controls and media content form part of the scope only where expressly agreed.
Memberships
