Office building in Munchen

Building use

Office building

Country/Region

Germany

Overview

The new headquarters of the German Automobile Association ADAC is a 23-story high-rise building with a 5-story low-rise podium building. The ground floor plan is star-shaped and arranged around an interior court. The tall structure above conveys a sense of dynamism, both in form – emphasized by the façade – and because it partially protrudes from the ground levels, thanks to an 8.5 meter long cantilever on the north-eastern side that supports the 88 meter high-rise. This cantilever is supported by a steel-concrete composite structure which transmits the loads to the concrete core.

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

Construction date: 2012
Number of stories: 23+3 below ground
Gross floor area: 129,000m2
Adopted design code: Eurocode
Engineer(s): Werner Sobek AG
Contractor(s): Züblin (Arge Züblin / ADAC)

Issue and/or innovation

Creating a cantilevered tower with 88 meters (18 floors) above also keeping into the account the constrain caused by 2 underground tunnels in the area that dictated the position of vertical columns.

Reason for composite solution

The composite solution is needed to divert the vertical loads acting on the columns toward the concrete core of the Tower.
Different alternatives were considered, including keeping the verticality of the columns and extending the cantilever at each floor’s slab. This however would have caused a much more significant cost.

Specific solution/technical details

The solution adopted for the slanted columns that allow the creation of the cantilevered tower is provided by couples of composite columns. These are formed by steel pipes filled with concrete and further reinforced with inside plates welded to create the amount of structural resistance required by the design.

Impact or effectiveness

Given the higher performance of the steel-concrete composite solution that was used, the size of the individual elements are smaller in terms of size, if it is compared with a conventional structural solution. Using this solution results in a wider gross floor area and, indirectly, in an economic advantage.