KFW Westarkade - Green Building and Environmental Project Case Studies - GreenS...

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CASE STUDY:

KFW Westarkade
Frankfurt, Germany

Colors n Curves: A new bank headquarters in Frankfurt may well be the world's most energy-efficient o
May 2011

Sauerbruch Hutton

By Ulf Meyer Shrouded in shades of many colors, it is a build it is. It is not often that a midsize bank building but the new 400,000-square-foot, $85 million e KfW Bank in Frankfurt, designed by Sauerbruc it performs as intended, the building will consum square foot per year, making it one of the world towers. KfW, an abbreviation for Kreditanstalt fr Wied Reconstruction, was founded in 1948, largely w II European Recovery Program, also known as owned by the German government and is one country, employing 3,500 people. Among its m Germany's ambitious energy-conservation prog retrofits and photovoltaic panel installation. Sin billion for CO2reduction programs that stem fro defined KfW-40 and KfW-60two widely cited criteria. Being at the forefront of Germany's tough ener the bank would want a green building when the headquarters arose. The German-British archit and Louisa Hutton, selected in 2004 as the res strangers to this task. Among their many ambit building, completed in 1999 and widely regarde environmentally friendly high-rise towers.
Photo Jan Bitter

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The recently completed KfW fits remarkably we Frankfurt's affluent Westend neighborhood, the provides office space for 700 employees and in base, the building has a curvy four-story podium defines a small green space to the rear. It also Palmengarten or Palmtree Garden, a public bo to the adjacent KfW buildings on several levels to the KfW ensemble of buildings from the seve The 10-story tower that rises from the podium h prevailing wind directions and the sun's daily a reminiscent of the jazzy architecture of the late the bank was founded. According to Sauerbruc

KEY PARAMETERS Location Frankfurt, Germany(Main River

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19/05/2011

KFW Westarkade - Green Building and Environmental Project Case Studies - GreenS... Page 2 of 2

watershed) Gross area 420,000 ft2 (39,000 m2) Completed May 2010 Annual purchased energy use (based on simulation)24 kBtu/ft2 (277 MJ/m2) Annual carbon footprint (predicted) 9 lbs. CO2/ft2 (43 kg CO2/m2) Program Subdivisible project rooms, adaptable workstations, laboratory, monitoring room, directors office, and conference room

Geister, the tower is shaped like a wing in orde the best possible views for the occupants of the Energy models predict that the new building's p consumption for building operations (excluding loads) will be only 9.1 kWh per square foot. Mo University of Karlsruhe, to be completed this su was accurate. The simulation was conducted a German EnEV 2004, the country's strict guidel energy conservation. A number of tightly coordinated strategies shou ambitious targets. These include thermal activa system that captures heat from the data proces supplemental raised floor ventilation system, u are below 50F or above 77F, supplies fresh a beneath a below-grade parking garage. The du louver located at the site's edge near the botan constant temperature of the earth. The building's most unusual feature is a specia dubbed a pressure ring by the design team. gauge-pressure ring,' but we thought that wou Roehle, a physicist in the Munich office of Tran responsible for the building's climate-control co The envelope consists of an encircling sawtoot its deepest point. It encloses automated blinds glare. This ring is defined on the exterior by a glass panels and colorful ventilation flaps, and operable and fixed argon-filled insulated glazin The dynamic system negates the effects of var enabling natural ventilation much of the year. It windows in the inner skin, regardless of the sea system reduces detrimental cross ventilation buildings with operable windowsto a conven The building has a roof-mounted weather statio speed, among other factors, and controls the o Depending on conditions, the building manage flaps to introduce fresh air and create a zone o curtain wall's inner skin, while also producing a the cavity and the building's interior. The air is vents near the perimeter, or through the occup subsequently exhausted naturally to the negati ultimately through the building core.

Heating Cooling

Temp./Dew Points

Precipitation

TEAM Owner KfW Bankengruppe Architect Sauerbruch Hutton Commissioning agent Green Building Services Engineers Transsolar Energietechnik (energy concept); ZWP Ingenieur-AG, Kln (mechanical); Reuter Rhrgartner (electrical); Werner Sobek (structural/facade) Consultants Mosbacher & Roll (facade); Sommerlad Haase Kuhli (landscape); Licht Kunst Licht (lighting); Mller-BBM (acoustical) SOURCES Metal/glass curtainwall FKN/Wicona (glass facade) BGT, Bischoff Glasstechnik (colored glass) Cabinetwork/custom woodwork Westermann (conference wall) Doors Schrghuber; Hrmann; Blasi Wallcoverings (corridors) Rehau; Thermopal; Kronospan Paneling Federle Westermann (partition) Special surfacing Pleyers. bau innovationen (high grade plaster) Floor and wall tile Jura Kalkstein (natural stone, ground floor); Villeroy & Boch (tiles) Elevators/escalators Schindler Interior ambient lighting Zumtobel

Colorful facade panels, also deployed at GSW Hutton device, animate the elevations. In the Frankfurt building, the architects combined red, blu hue dominating each elevation. This colorful and innovative envelope, along with the building's h systems, should help KfW establish a new benchmark for red, blueand, of course, greendes Ulf Meyer is an architectural writer and educator based in Berlin and the U.S. He was named th the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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