Customised fire protection solutions for Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie concert hall

Weener, 23 February 2017 - Wildeboer Bauteile GmbH has successfully completed one of the most prestigious orders in the company's history by equipping the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg with innovative and high-quality fire protection, noise protection and air distribution solutions. The ventilation systems of the concert hall and the hotel and residential areas were largely equipped with the manufacturer's fire protection and smoke control dampers as well as a large number of volume flow controllers and other components. The maintenance-free shut-off devices from the Weener-based company tipped the scales in favour of the versatile installation options in the lightweight partition walls and ceilings of the building. At the same time, those involved in the project relied on the products as tried-and-tested, reliable fire protection solutions for the realisation of the extremely complex construction project. The manufacturer's sophisticated logistics enabled deliveries to the construction site at short notice, ensuring that the project ran smoothly.

Hamburg's new cultural landmark at the western tip of HafenCity impresses with the interplay between the former Kaispeicher A warehouse and the new glass building on top of it, whose curved roof landscape rises up to 110 metres into the sky. Three concert halls, a hotel with 250 rooms and 45 exclusive condominiums are located on a total gross area of around 125,000 square metres. The Plaza, a publicly accessible viewing platform located between the Kaispeicher and the glass superstructure, offers an impressive view of the city and harbour.

This central meeting point of the complex, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, can be reached via an 82 metre long, upwardly curved escalator. The concert hall can also be accessed via lifts and a total of eleven staircases. A pressurised smoke protection system ensures that the escape routes are reliably kept free of smoke in the event of a fire. An important component here are the more than 200 EK90 smoke control dampers from the manufacturer in Weener.

Undisturbed enjoyment of music with maximum fire safety is also guaranteed by over 1,000 FK90 and FR90 fire dampers, both from the 92 series. The round and square shut-off devices were used in metal stud walls with a sliding ceiling connection, among other things. For this purpose, the manufacturer supplied the products with factory pre-assembled installation subframes made of calcium silicate, which can be quickly and easily mounted directly below the ceiling. The frames are fastened in such a way that they move up and down together with the solid ceiling above when the ceiling drops by up to 40 mm.

Special fire protection solutions were also required in the hotel and residential areas of the Elbphilharmonie. Here, the room height desired by the architects could only be realised with very flat suspended ceilings. This necessitated barriers with particularly low construction heights. Accordingly, those responsible used a large number of type FK90K fire dampers, series 92, in the suspended ceilings. This extremely compact model with a calcium silicate casing was specially developed for confined installation conditions and can be fixed directly to adjacent walls or ceilings. The minimum dimension required between ceilings is just 145 mm.

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