Raiffeisen Multi-Purpose Center Raaba
AustriaCompany Name: Lieb Bau Weiz GmbH & Co KG
Project description
Upgrading the Raiffeisen Landesbank Styria to a new Multi-Purpose Centre was a huge project. With about 45,000 square metres of gross floor area, it provides modern office workplaces for the more than 400 employees since spring 2014. The building also houses the new high-security data processing centre as well as a bank branch, a conference and event centre and a restaurant. Architectural design played an important role in this project. At the same time, the building owner put a high emphasis on aspects of ecology and sustainability. The use of photovoltaics, the utilization of the data centre’s excess heat as well as the cooling system fed by groundwater meant significant savings in operational expenses. In addition, these systems together with the RIGIPS solutions offer a significant contribution to the positive life cycle assessment of the building. The Multi-Purpose Centre was awarded the DGNB Blue Building Certificate in Gold.
Contractor
Lieb Bau Weiz GmbH & Co KG
The family company Lieb Bau Weiz is one of the largest construction companies in Austria. Awarded the State Emblem of Merit, the core business of Lieb Bau Weiz is wood construction and ceramic construction projects in the public and private sectors, as well as projects of industrialised interior construction. Because of a stable network and a strong team, the company is ready for the challenges of a sustainable future. For special services in interior design when high-quality, innovative capacity, utmost care, punctuality and professionalism are required, they are reliable partners. For decades, their drylining department has been among the market leaders. The team of site managers, technicians and skilled workers is mainly Syrian.
Key Achievements
- Plateau scaffolding was erected for the installation of the conical, curved ceiling panels in the multi-purpose hall with a room height of up to 8m. The heating and cooling systems are both embedded in the support construction of the ceiling.
- The support profiles – pre-curved – and -formed on factory side- on UA 100 wide-span beams serve as structure for the ceiling elements. Two layers of standard board construction form the bottom view and the soffits of the ceiling elements.
- Detailed planning and positioning of the inspection hatches for climate ceiling were carried out in close cooperation with maintainance and building services. The heating/cooling functions meant that putting in additional and further openings after having applied the ceiling panels was not possible.
- The inspection hatches also were pre-curved and, with a joint thickness of only 1mm, they were embedded almost invisibly into the ceiling elements.
- In order to ensure the required Q4 surface quality, Lieb Bau Weiz did mill dedicated stainless-steel application tools; these were individually adapted to the different curve radii. A challenge: Up to 1.20m wide, each of them was operated by two mechanics.
- The requirement of the soffit of the ceiling panels without recognizing any joints in the sided light could only be provided by shifting the installation work to the nighttime hours; that was the only way to ensure that no daylight could have had interfered with the artificial interior light;
- For the installation of the ceilings in the lobby area, another plateau scaffold had to be erected to ensure the exact transfer of the radii of the rounded corners. For this purpose prefabricated moulded components were used in addition to edge protection profiles.
- The use of gypsum as a natural building material meant a decisive advantage for the building certification. In addition to the ecological quality criteria, “Blue Building” also takes users’ convenience into consideration. The use of Climafit and Rigiton Air provided exactly these additional benefits
Key Challenges
About 7,500m² of walls and wall linings as well as over 3,000m² of ceiling were built as drywall constructions in the Multi-Purpose Centre. The greatest challenge regarding the construction and design was the 790m² suspended ceiling with its curved individual elements in the auditorium. It was not only the dimensions, but also the room heights and the surface quality required by the architect and the building owner that posed a challenge for the installation team. The execution of the construction was further complicated by the fact that the large ceiling surface is at the same time used to heat or cool the hall. Strict requirements were also imposed in the rest of the building, e.g. in the lobby with a height of up to 8m which, in the same way as the dining hall, distinguishes itself from the mainstream by an independent architecture featuring rounded corners and curved cladding in the area of the galleries and ceiling recesses.