Palm Paper Mill

Administrative Building

Aalen-Neukochen

  • Client:
    Papierfabrik Palm GmbH & Co.
  • Architect: Bothe Richter Teherani, Hamburg
  • Reinforced concrete framed structure, pile foundation, steel roof
  • GFA: c. 2,500 m²
    Roof area: 32 m x 46 m
    Time: 2000 - 2002
    Building costs: 6 mill. EUR
  • Our scope:
    structural engineering

Like a sheet of paper.

This is how the wide, projecting roof floats over the administrative building of the paper-maker Papierfabrik Palm. The subject of "paper" is thus made manifest and translated into spatial experience.

The clue to realising this "sheet of paper made of steel" is its extremely economical method of manufacture and the unconventional means of achieving its form. More than 1,500 steel sheets were welded together, immediately adjacent to the building, to produce an absolutely even, 30 cm thick hollow panel with a surface area of 32 x 46 metres and a total weight of 225 tonnes.

After assembly and with the aid of two large cranes, the construction was lifted in a single operation onto the building itself, a reinforced concrete skeleton structure packaged in a modern steel and glass facade. Beforehand, steel pillars of differing lengths had been set in place. When the panel was lowered onto the pillars, the heights of which had been exactly pre-determined, the harmonious form was impressed into the roof – as desired and as calculated in advance.

Air conditioning versus structural design.

Visitor Centre

STULZ GmbH

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Bringing administration under one roof.

Dialogicum - dm Head Office

Administrative Building + Car Park

Karlsruhe

Built in alphabetical order.

ABC 21

Office Building

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