Office building in Essen

ECE Projekt management GmbH – Germany

Building use

Office building

Country/Region

Germany

Overview

The building serves as the headquarters for Thyssenkrupp. The campus is organized in a series of buildings. Each building is characterized, in plan, by two interlocking “L” shaped elements that create a patio in the center. In the main building, the same principle is replicated in elevation and the patio is transformed in a very large void on the side of the building, that creates a 800square meter panoramic window.

Basic information (construction date, number of stories, gross floor area, adopted design code, engineer(s), Contractor(s), etc.)

Construction date: 2008-2010
Number of stories: 13
Gross floor area: 22,000m2
Adopted design code: Eurocode4 and DIN18800-5
Engineer(s): ECE Projekt management GmbH
Contractor(s): –

Issue and/or innovation

The architectural decision to have very large open spaces at height brought to the need to create a very large truss that freed the atrium from columns and horizontal structural elements.

Reason for composite solution

For the columns, the solution is dictated by the decision to limit the diameter of the vertical supports to the minimum and to avoid the need for fireproofing and additional decorative layering. The columns of the top floors are in reinforced concrete and built with cardboard formworks. The columns in the lower portion of the building and all the columns carrying the loads of the truss are made in composite. The solution of the composite truss is dictated by the willingness to avoid any additional fireproofing coating and to obtain slim sections of the profiles.

Specific solution/technical details

The columns of the upper part of the building are made with reinforced concrete, while those of the lower portion and those supporting the trusses are made with low steel profiles filled with concrete. The columns are prefabricated in sections of one story with overall diameters of either 40 or 46cm (the larger columns are in the ground floor, that has a free height of 5.6m, thus requiring a thicker column to compensate column buckling.
The truss is 31 meters in span and 7.7 meter in height. The upper and lower chords made of welded T and H -Profiles are integrated into the flat ceilings. The slim filler rods (posts and diagonals) consist of concrete-filled steel jacket pipes with adjustment profiles. The node points were designed structurally within the ceiling and the casing pipes in order to emphasize the slenderness of the individual supporting members and the transparency of the overall truss construction.

Impact or effectiveness

Truss nodes without visible connection or gusset plates, as a composite construction. Fulfillment of the fire protection requirement R90 as integrated fire protection (without subsequent cladding or intumescent coating).

References / Technical Papers Content

Sauerborn N., Fastabend M., Constantin R., Schücker B., ThyssenKrupp Headquarter in Verbundbauweise, Stahlbau 79 (2010), 306-316
https://doi.org/10.1002/stab.201001323