Wälderhaus, Hamburg

Project description

In Hamburg's "Neue Mitte" urban quarter, on the Wilhelmsburg island in the Elbe river, the sustainable Wälderhaus (Forest House) was built in 2012. It is a unique multifunctional building that implements new architectural concepts in fire protection and energy supply. The idea, which was conceived as early as the 1990s by Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald, Landesverband Hamburg e.V. (German Forest Conservation Association, Hamburg branch), was brought to life as an "excellence project" of the International Building Exhibition Hamburg in 2013. The designs for Wälderhaus came from the Hamburg architectural firm Andreas Geller Architects & Designers, who used an unusual combination of reinforced concrete and solid wood to implement the overall theme of the building, "Forest and Wood", from the untreated larch wood facade to the spruce wood used for the building structure.

Across 6,000 m,² the building provides space for the interactive exhibition "Science Center Wald", as well as for events, seminars, gastronomy and a hotel. The building is designed for sustainability, an optimised and low-CO2 energy supply and environmentally sound management. In addition, an innovative fire protection concept was implemented in accordance with the new European structural design regulations (Eurocodes), which was a new development in the history of timber construction.

OBO Bettermann was responsible for the electrical installation in this very special and nature-oriented design, which required the electrical equipment to be compatible with the in-house photovoltaic system, the flexible, organic design of the event and exhibition spaces, and the strict fire protection concepts.

Both cable support systems and underfloor systems with floor sockets were installed by OBO Bettermann. When it came to supplying power through the ground, emphasis was placed on the asymmetrical, organic distribution of the floor sockets across the untreated concrete floor on the ground floor; this had to be adapted to the different room uses as well as the overall concept of the building, in which wood is the main focus and technical, inorganic details are more unobtrusive.

OBO's cable support systems were installed in the open ceilings not only because of their functionality, but also because of their excellent fire protection properties. The cable trays produced by OBO Bettermann make an important aesthetic and technical contribution to this extraordinary, cutting-edge building, particularly in the context of the conceptual contrast of the interior between the emphasis on wood, as a material, and the rough simplicity of the contemporary industrial appeal.