Logo Oventrop GmbH & Co. KG

SKAIO Wooden high-rise building
Heilbronn, Germany

Description
Type Residential building
Project New building
Execution 01.2018-03.2019
Area 3.436 m²
Architect Kaden+Lager
Designer IFB Ingenieure GmbH
Owner
/ Investor
Stadtsiedlung Heilbronn GmbH


A model project for sustainable housing construction

The SKAIO high-rise building measures 34 meters. The special thing about it: It is not a conventional high-rise building, but the first wooden high-rise building in Germany.

An innovative mix of owner-occupied and rented dwellings as well as a wide variety of living concepts was built. Stadtsiedlung Heilbronn GmbH constructed four buildings with a total of 93 rental dwellings. One of them: SKAIO

With ten storeys and a height of 34 meters, it is the first and currently the tallest high-rise building in Germany. With 60 residential units, it provides space for numerous innovative living models and is considered a signpost for the future and an example of the successful combination of sustainable construction and sophisticated design.

Fire protection requirements mastered

With its realisation, Stadtsiedlung Heilbronn GmbH broke new ground in ecologically sustainable housing construction. In addition, with SKAIO, Stadtsiedlung Heilbronn was able to gain valuable insights for future building projects in Heilbronn. The upper eight storeys, including the supporting structure, are made of solid wood. In order to meet the strict fire protection requirements for high-rise buildings, the central access core, including the staircase and lift shaft, was made of concrete, everything else of wood. The raw material was used as much as possible because wood binds CO2 during its growth. As a building material, for example, it has a positive CO2 balance; conventional materials such as stone or concrete cannot compete with it.

Focus on sustainability

But is was not only the primary building material that was selected with ecological considerations in mind: Climate protection, resource efficiency and sustainability were decisive factors in every decision made during the planning process. This is also the case for the heat and potable water supply, because particulary large savings can be achieved in the system engineering: Stadtsiedlung Heilbronn decided on a decentralised solution and relied on 60 Regudis W-HTF dwelling stations from Oventrop GmbH & Co. KG. This has two central advantages: Maximum energy efficiency and the highest hygiene standards.

Modern heating solution

The residential units are heated via energy-efficient underfloor heating systems. These are supplied by the dwelling stations via the integrated heating circuit distributor/collector. For this purpose, cooler water from the return is added to the heating supply, which reaches the dwelling stations at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. Electric room thermostats are installed in all living rooms, which control the actuators of the heating circuit distributor/collector via a connecting block. This allows the temperature in all rooms to be regulated individually.

Highest hygiene standards

The dwelling stations produce hot potable water decentrally via a highly efficient heat exchanger consisting of wafer-thin, finely structured stainless steel plates: Using the counterflow principle, cold potable water and heating supply water are routed past each other so that hot potable water can be provided 'just in time'. This makes hygiene standards possible that cannot be achieved with a central solution - and they pay off: Since the dwelling stations only heat the potable water when it is needed, there is no need to store hot potable water. This eliminates the cost-intensive obligation for regular legionella testing in the entire building.

Minimum effort

Another advantage of the dwelling stations already facilitated the construction of SKAIO: the decentralised solution eliminates the need for a hot potable water supply pipe and and a circulation pipe - this significantly reduces installation efforts and costs. To supply the individual units with heating and potable water, only cold potable water, heating supply and heating return are laid in a total of nine pipe shafts. The installation of the dwelling stations was also easy. Last but not least, decentralised hot water preparation also pays off in terms of the energy efficiency of the entire building: If the hot potable water pipe is omitted, there is significantly less hot water in the system than with a central solution - and less thermal energy is radiated.

Award-winning quality

SKAIO itself is also highly decorated: Stadtsiedlung Heilbronn was not only awarded the DGNB certificate in gold for the overall project by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB) (German Sustainable Building Council) but also in diamond. This makes SKAIO the first building to win the prestigious award in the "Residential Building" category. Diamond is awarded to projects that have an outstanding design and architectural quality. Other key criteria for an award include technical quality, sociocultural and functional quality, and ecological quality.

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