Colorful Activity at the Facade

1960s Building Envelope of Göttingen City Hall Successfully Renovated – with fischer System Solution

Colorful Activity at the Facade
References

The city of Göttingen is currently renovating its town hall. The probably most striking and characteristic feature of the building has already been successfully restored: the colorful tile facade from the 1960s. A fischer BWM system solution for the ventilated curtain wall facade (VHF) made it possible to mount the building envelope in a user-friendly and permanently secure way.

After a five-year renovation break, the listed Göttingen town hall is scheduled to reopen in February 2024. For nearly 60 years, the institution has provided an ideal stage for a wide range of events. 2,600 m² of event space on three levels, as well as a total area of just under 5,400 m², plus 900 m² of rooftop terrace space, offer plenty of room for culture and exchange. It is, among other things, the venue of the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra and the International Händel Festival. A controversial topic in the 1960s was the unusually designed facade, which earned the town hall the affectionate nickname "Kachelofen" (tiled stove) and over the years established itself as a unique landmark of the city. 

The renewal of the building envelope began in December 2019 and was successfully completed in early 2023. In doing so, fischer BWM supported the planners and contractors with the appropriate system solution for the facade renovation. Existing ceramic tiles on the building envelope, which were mortared and mechanically fastened, were initially carefully dismantled, refurbished, and reused in the current ventilated curtain facade (VCF). Damaged or missing tiles were replaced by newly designed ones, produced by m&r manufaktur (Saarbrücken). The approach is based on the award-winning, sustainable facade concept by the firm soll sasse architects BDA from Dortmund. The contracted facade construction company was Dach Schneider Weimar GmbH (Umpferstedt). 
The new facade sustainably connects the building's past and future.
Heiko Sasse, Partner of architectural firms soll sasse architekten BDA
The 50 x 50 x 3 cm ceramic tiles feature two different geometric reliefs with circle and triangle as well as five color glazes in dark blue, blue, red, violet, and white. New tiles in old pink and dove blue remain within the color ductus of the existing tiles. The square relief of the new tiles complements the geometric basic shapes of the existing ones. The extensions (logistics and canopies) are clad with the white tiles, while the hall body is designed exclusively in color. "The new facade sustainably connects the past and future of the building," emphasizes Heiko Sasse, partner of the architectural firm soll sasse architekten BDA. "From a distance, the facade appears colorfully flat, but upon approaching, it also reveals a differentiated and heterogeneous play of colors, which is further enhanced and expanded by the geometric reliefs – similar to the city as a unified structure, but composed of different individuals." 

Property Profile

Authorized Facade Construction Company:
Dach Schneider Weimar GmbH (Umpferstedt)
Construction period:
2019 - 2023
Total Area
5,400 m²
Facade Concept
soll sasse architects BDA (Dortmund)
Event space
2,600 m² on three levels
The supporting structure of the building envelope consists of reinforced concrete and undefined masonry. The existing tiles were attached to this with mortar strips and brass bands. For the facade renovation, the elements were completely dismantled and cleaned manually. The concrete of the exposed substrate was renovated. In the process, the partially insufficient concrete coverage of the reinforcement was restored. On the supporting structure, the VHF was erected along with new thermal insulation according to energy requirements. “We provided comprehensive technical support for the facade fastening,” reports Jochen Burbach, head of fischer BWM Facade Systems Germany. “Our services ranged from consulting and calculation in the planning phase, through our support in obtaining individual case approval (ZiE), to the delivery of the suitable complete system including substructure, frame anchors, injection anchors and undercut anchors all from a single source.” 
Regarding on-site support, Jochen Burbach explains: "We accompanied the facade builders during the facade installation with several on-site tests using our fischer long-shaft anchors as well as chemical fastening systems and provided assistance with the construction execution."
Both the old and the new tiles consist of a building material that is not regulated for ventilated facades. Therefore, the application required a ZiE from the Lower Saxony Ministry for Environment, Energy, Construction, and Climate Protection, which was overseen by the expert and assessor Prof. Dr. Alfred Stein. The fastening was done with Zykon plate anchors FZP II in the design 11x21 M6/SO/9 Carbon. Although the tiles have small dimensions, four fastenings per plate were still carried out to prevent the facade from "rattling" under wind influence.
After the ZiE was successfully obtained, the facade elements were installed with the fischer BWM aluminum substructure. The distance substructure was executed vertically by the facade builders with the ATK 100 ZeLa. „The thermally optimized ZeLa holder with stainless steel blade plays to its advantages here,“ emphasizes Steffen Bendix, who supported the project as a sales engineer at fischer BWM. „This way, the ZeLa holder ensures compliance with the required thermal insulation requirements (U-value) while maintaining a low build-up.“ On this basic construction, the horizontal systems were attached, which consist of the ATK 103 P20 for concealed clamp fastening along with P20 horizontal profiles. Fischer long-shank dowels and injection anchors anchor the wall brackets of the substructure to the load-bearing structure. The visible elements with the preserved and new tiles were securely and concealedly fastened to the substructure with the fischer undercut anchors.

„We thank the expert and appraiser Prof. Dr. Alfred Stein, whose appraisal of the facade construction made an important contribution to the best-suited facade fastening,“ says Jochen Burbach. „Thus, the system combines secure and at the same time concealed fastening of the tiled facade to preserve the original face of the Göttingen city hall for generations to come."

The used fischer products

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