WAREMA external venetian blinds

Hamburg is the city of water and awakens in people a longing for far-flung places. The outstanding Dockland building that "berthed" in January 2006, in the shape of a luxury cruise liner, on the bank of the River Elbe, reflects this many times over. With its exposed position, an unobstructed view on all sides and its first-class interior fit-out, it provides office space with the quality of environment in which people want to spend time. The IT suites, together with the meeting rooms and reception areas, exhibition rooms, kitchen, archive and toilet blocks have therefore been located right in the centre of the building. As a result, the façade of the building could be designed almost completely in glass - the employees in the building thus have a unique and outstanding panoramic view of the harbour area, as well as having a top-quality working environment.

Sun and glare protection
The extensive glazing around the building results in a significant amount of sun entering the building and requires measures to be put in place to provide sun and glare protection. BRT Architects therefore elected to use an internal glare protection system on the front wall of the office building with its large-scale asymmetrical glazing. WAREMA conservatory awnings block out reflections and glare from the offices and create optimum working conditions.
A customised asymmetrically cut design was required, developed together with WAREMA, owing to the unusual design of the Dockland's façade. What is unique about WAREMA conservatory awnings is that they have concealed fittings: both the drive and awning fabric are incorporated within an extruded aluminium box located in the floor and the guide rails fitted to the structure of the façade are also very discreet. The awning works on the back-pull system, from bottom to top, and can be extended to a maximum length of six metres.

Daylight guidance
The long wings of the building are connected to the angled front wall of the building. The back-ventilated double-skin façade used there provides the opportunity to fit sun shading in the space between the glazing. Unlike with an internally-mounted system, this allows the cooling output in the offices to be significantly reduced. The external skin of the façade consists of room-height, fall-proof, linear LSG glazing. Narrow, room-height, pivotal panes on the inside of the glazing provide the opportunity for natural ventilation. WAREMA external venetian blinds with flat aluminium slats were fitted in the 1.40 metre deep gap between the glazing. They provide effective use of daylight, guarantee effective sun and glare protection in the offices and provide the best possible lighting in the rooms. At the same time they regulate how much heat from the sun enters the building and thus create a greater level of thermal comfort. This increases the employees' feeling of well-being at work and lowers the energy cost of artificial light.

Building management
The various sun shading systems installed in the Dockland's office building are automatically controlled by LONWORKS® technology. This decentralised bus system ensures effective sun shading to create optimum light and temperature conditions in the offices and meet the developer's detailed requirements. The system essentially comprises a weather station, motor drive units and operating units.

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WAREMA International GmbH
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