In 2008 the manufacturer of timber products, Egger, invited five Austrian architectural practices to participate in a competition for the design of its new administrative building in Romania. The building, to accommodate 150 employees, was to be erected in a modular fashion and, in the event of expansion, to be easily extended.
Bruno Moser’s winning design has the building’s modular construction as its design principle. All four facades are composed of alternating floor-to-ceiling glass panels and trapezoidal copper sheet cladding protecting the timber construction beneath from the weather. There is a three storey foyer in the centre of the building to which the offices of the four departments, meeting rooms, seminar rooms, and the first-floor show room are connected.
A year after the competition results, and therefore relatively late in the planning process, the development of DGNB’s certification system had progressed to a sufficienctly advanced stage that Egger decided to obtain certification for the building according to the new system. Nevertheless, as Bruno Moser emphasises, only few modifications to the construction were required in order to achieve the Gold rating.
The energy concept also played a considerable role in achieving certification: the new construction in Rădăuți will be heated solely by exhaust heat from the manufacturing plant. For the central regulation of the building services engineering and the measurement of energy used Egger uses software that is compatible with the regulation programmes already used in the manufacturing plant.
The primary construction element is a box beam measuring 2.8 x 11.4 m with a floor, ceiling and roof depth of 52 cm. Structurally, it is designed so that the box beam elements rest only on their corner points. The size of the box beam element is derived from the maximum dimensions of Egger’s OSB boards (11.500 x 2.800 x 30 mm), which were glued, without cutting, on both sides to the laminated timber supporting structure. After the addition of the empty conduits for electric and ventilation cables, heating and cooling elements, as well as a layer of gravel (for acoustic protection), the wall and ceiling cavities were completely insulated.
Five adjoining box beam elements create an approximately 160 m2 office module, which spans the width of the building (14 m) and is designed for eight to sixteen office spaces. Inside each office module, one box beam element is enclosed on all sides by walls. It contains the ancillary rooms (WC, archive, technology etc.) as well as single and double office spaces for quieter working conditions.
The modules are stacked over three floors, their orientation alternating with each floor level. In this way expansion modules can be annexed at each floor and module without the necessity of larger building alterations. Currently the new construction at Rădăuți, Romania, encompasses 21 modules on three levels. They house the required working spaces as well as a central three storey foyer and a show room complete with a reception and hospitality area on the first floor. With regard to services engineering every office module functions as an entirely independent unit. Consequently each module is fitted with its own air-conditioning system, heating circuit, electrical distribution circuit, in addition to own measuring, regulation and controlling equipment.
Bruno Moser’s winning design has the building’s modular construction as its design principle. All four facades are composed of alternating floor-to-ceiling glass panels and trapezoidal copper sheet cladding protecting the timber construction beneath from the weather. There is a three storey foyer in the centre of the building to which the offices of the four departments, meeting rooms, seminar rooms, and the first-floor show room are connected.
A year after the competition results, and therefore relatively late in the planning process, the development of DGNB’s certification system had progressed to a sufficienctly advanced stage that Egger decided to obtain certification for the building according to the new system. Nevertheless, as Bruno Moser emphasises, only few modifications to the construction were required in order to achieve the Gold rating.
The energy concept also played a considerable role in achieving certification: the new construction in Rădăuți will be heated solely by exhaust heat from the manufacturing plant. For the central regulation of the building services engineering and the measurement of energy used Egger uses software that is compatible with the regulation programmes already used in the manufacturing plant.
The primary construction element is a box beam measuring 2.8 x 11.4 m with a floor, ceiling and roof depth of 52 cm. Structurally, it is designed so that the box beam elements rest only on their corner points. The size of the box beam element is derived from the maximum dimensions of Egger’s OSB boards (11.500 x 2.800 x 30 mm), which were glued, without cutting, on both sides to the laminated timber supporting structure. After the addition of the empty conduits for electric and ventilation cables, heating and cooling elements, as well as a layer of gravel (for acoustic protection), the wall and ceiling cavities were completely insulated.
Five adjoining box beam elements create an approximately 160 m2 office module, which spans the width of the building (14 m) and is designed for eight to sixteen office spaces. Inside each office module, one box beam element is enclosed on all sides by walls. It contains the ancillary rooms (WC, archive, technology etc.) as well as single and double office spaces for quieter working conditions.
The modules are stacked over three floors, their orientation alternating with each floor level. In this way expansion modules can be annexed at each floor and module without the necessity of larger building alterations. Currently the new construction at Rădăuți, Romania, encompasses 21 modules on three levels. They house the required working spaces as well as a central three storey foyer and a show room complete with a reception and hospitality area on the first floor. With regard to services engineering every office module functions as an entirely independent unit. Consequently each module is fitted with its own air-conditioning system, heating circuit, electrical distribution circuit, in addition to own measuring, regulation and controlling equipment.