2019 Award Winners
Award-winning project: BetoLamina®-Cast – The new glass fiber reinforced architectural concrete for delicate, free-form facades
Project partners: Fiber-Tech Products GmbH, Chemnitz | Medicke Metallbau GmbH, Glauchau | Steinbeis Innovation Center FiberCrete, Chemnitz
Building envelopes are generally constructed using curtain wall elements. Concrete is increasingly in demand as a building material due to its attractive appearance, design versatility and excellent material properties. However, this is offset by the high weight of this bulk building material, which is attributable to the integrated steel reinforcement and the concrete cover required for corrosion protection.
For modern curtain walls, there is therefore a demand for steel-free concretes which, in addition to meeting the required mechanical properties, are thin-walled, freely configurable and have high surface quality. This calls for intelligent material concepts, innovative fixing technology and a reproducible manufacturing strategy. The strong demand for such solutions led Medicke Metallbau GmbH – a full-service provider of high-quality building envelopes – to Chemnitz. In collaboration with FIBER-TECH Products GmbH and the Steinbeis Innovation Centre (SIZ) FiberCrete, a research project was carried out to develop the glass-fibre-reinforced architectural concrete BetoLamina®-Cast, as well as the technology for manufacturing and anchoring thin-walled façades. The focus was on mapping out a holistic process chain, starting with the mixing of the concrete components right through to the logistical implementation and installation on the building.
BetoLamina®-Cast was used for the first time as a freely designed façade (approx. 5,000 m²) during the construction of the new Wilhelm-Kaiser-Hof office building in Cologne. Vertically and horizontally oriented pilasters create an extraordinary play of shadows that changes as the light falls. All requirements for the façade – namely a smooth surface, the highest exposed concrete class, a delicate matt finish, high weather resistance and strength – were met. The transfer of fundamental research from Chemnitz University of Technology’s Institute for Lightweight Structures, in collaboration with SIZ FiberCrete, was implemented in an exemplary manner within the project. The Steinbeis Foundation’s Transfer Award – the Löhn Prize – recognises this intensive collaboration between the partners and highlights the successful transfer of research achievements into practice.