Volksbank-Area

A facade like a forest
A building complex by Hadi Teherani Architects distinguishes the city’s image

Hadi Teherani Architects operates internationally and has created a new complex of buildings with their Volksbank areal, distinguishing the city of Freiburg im Breisgau’s image. The architecture adopts references and transposes these into elegant and contemporary notions of form and shape. interpretation of forms and shapes. This multifunctional areal accommodates the new headquarters of Volksbank Freiburg, Foundations of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, rooms used by St. Ursula Grammar School, a hotel, offices and also shopping units, amongst other things.

The Volksbank Areal constitutes a landmark for Freiburg, characterizing the city’s identity. And so we have a gateway and a business card for the city, situated centrally and directly across from Freiburg main train station. A sensory interpretation of this city’s very rich and traditional identity and of the world famous Black Forest denoted the starting point for the design process. The vertical lamellar structure of facades adopts the notion of trees in the forest in an abstract fashion.

Contemporary architecture making a convincing urban structural impression
Hadi Teherani Architects divided the 43,000 square metres of gross floor area into several building structures, grouped around an inner courtyard, which pay homage to the urban development context.

The external structure with its floor-to-ceiling windows, implemented as transom and mullion facade, was even furnished with guide bars made of 12 mm thick aluminium flat bars by the manufacturer, which serve for taking up the SYSTEA KU35 NVA substructure system. Black Alucobond panel folded cassettes were then used across the surface, which were inserted and suspended in a concealed manner in the SYSTEA substructure system. Over this, a suspended vertical lamellar structure made of anodized aluminium was placed on the guide bars. The individual pilaster strips are likewise anchored in a secret-fix method to the shell construction in the region of the parapet cladding, in which case a floating, hovering effect occurs in front of the facade.

Dimmable LED light bands are integrated in the pilaster strips, which provide a rhythm to the facade after dark, and emphasise the dynamic of the main train station and Bismarckallee thoroughfare. The vertical tension of lover blade lamellas is playfully counteracted by displaced cubes.

“Dividing the project into cuboid building structures panders to the specific urban development grading of the neighbourhood and likewise presents an enthralling mass when compared with the narrow tower of the main train station”, Project Architect Dr. Christian Bergmann tells us, one of the Partners in Hadi Teherani Architects.

Sustainability Certificate & elaborate Recycling Process for the old building
Sustainability was a central aspect of this new-build project: The Volksbank Areal was distinguished with a Gold interim certificate by the German Sustainable Building Society (DGNB). 37 sustainability criteria from subject fields including ecology, economics, socio-cultural and functional aspects, technology, process quality and location were included for assessing this prestigious certification. The new-build project was erected in the area around the old Volksbank building dating back to 1974, which could no longer do justice to technological and heat insulation aspects of the current standard. Demolition was completed and was almost 100% recycled , to minimise the environmental footprint. For example, even old cladding panels were removed by hand for later re-use and the builders’ rubble was extensively separated out into individual classes.

Project details

  • Project: Volksbank area
  • Place: Freiburg i.B.
  • Country: DE
  • Building type: Commercial + Industry
  • Type of construction project: New build
  • Completion: 2021
  • Wall bracket: Special construction
  • SYSTEA profile system: KU35 NVA
  • Cladding material: Alucobond 4 mm + Aluminum pilaster strips
  • Fastening: Concealed
  • Installer: Henke AG
  • Architect: Hadi Teherani Architects
  • Photos: Aaron Bowser, Jochen Stüber

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