Project description
Over the past few years a new district has developed at the heart of the Viennese city around the central station. The Erste Group Campus is the newly constructed headquarters of one the country’s biggest banks. It is a striking landmark of ~ 25,000 square metres in the immediate vicinity of the main station. The heart of the building complex is the two-storey atrium whose cultural and culinary programme is a major contributor towards the rejuvenation of the new city district. Accordingly, Henke Schreieck Architekten designed the foyer as a representative meeting and exchange zone. One of the greatest challenges from a constructional viewpoint was the central multi-functional hall with a dry lining design from end to end. Strict requirements on fire protection and sound insulation were not the only ones that had to be met. The building owner also placed high demands on the appearance, resilience and durability of the surface.
Contractor
Lieb Bau Weiz
The family-run Lieb Bau Weiz is one of the largest construction companies in Austria. Excellent with the State coat of arms for special merits comprises the core business of Lieb Bau Weiz, which lies in building, timber, dry lining and ceramic construction projects in the public as well as in the private sector as well as projects of industrialized interior design. Through a stable network and with a strong team, the company is ready for the challenges of a sustainable future.
Key Achievements
- To meet the design expectations, the areas between the 18 V-supports were filled with over-dimensional glass elements with a thickness of around 6 centimetres. The wall was built up between the supports and in front of the glass elements in the form of pilasters with excess length profiles.
- The installers couldn’t rely exclusively on their own visual judgement due to the distortion caused by the glass elements. Measuring points had to be defined before fitting the glass elements to ensure the interior and exterior mouldings were aligned – this enabled precision adjustment.
- The conical surfaces between the mouldings were closed with plasterboard elements that were cut to size and planned on site. Utmost precision was required to create a visually appealing surface finish. No two parts were the same, so that the dry lining was more akin to carpentry work.
Key Challenges
The partition wall separating the multifunctional hall from the foyer was by far the greatest challenge facing the dry lining specialists. Alone the dimensions of the approximately 500 square metre multi-layer wall structure with a height of up to 7.30 metres are impressive. The challenge was made all the harder by glazed sections arranged in an irregular pattern that provide a glimpse into the hall; they demanded utmost precision with regard to measurement and accuracy of execution. Furthermore, the partition wall’s V-shaped steel columns also support the entire roof structure, which is why the dry lining naturally had to fulfil every fire protection requirement. Strict demands on sound insulation also had to be met to enable the hall to be used to its maximum acoustic capacity. The control room features a curved and inclined wall slab that is integrated in the room and is also designed as a dry lining structure with flush-fitting glazed elements.