After four years of construction, at the end of August 2013 the City of Gelsenkirchen inaugurated its new city hall. The challenge was to demolish the existing city hall in the city centre of and to build a new city hall and public citizens' centre while retaining the listed brick façade from the 1920s. The result is a remarkable combination of brick expressionism and glazed shell which it has earned its place in the World Lexicon of Architecture.

Multi-functionality plus soundproofing

The architect's design retains the character of the modern building, however, but at the same time supplements it with transparency and functionality. The role of glass thereby, catches the eye: There where once the extension stood, the Hans-Sachs-Haus now opens up via a large glass façade to the citizens' square. Flachglaswerk Radeburg GmbH, part of the GLASSOLUTIONS group, manufactured and supplied around 1,370 m² of multifunction glass for this. The greater part of the outer post and beam façade was furnished with the - partly bowed - double insulating and solar protection glass CLIMAPLUS cool LITE from single sheet and laminated safety glasses, in some cases in oversized units and with alarm systems. The soundproofing foil integrated into most insulating glass units provides soundproofing values of up to 42 dBA. Even higher soundproofing requirements were set for the interior glazing of the atrium: here, around 700 m² of fixed glazing and wings made of extra-white DIAMANT glass was used as laminated glass, whose 1.14 mm thick soundproofing foil made soundproofing values of up to 49 dBA possible. The installation on site was handled by the facade experts of Fassaden-Technik Berlin Innovations-GmbH (BFTi).

Source: Saint-Gobain/saint-gobain.de/