Zollverein School of Management and Design, Essen

Essen, Germany, Europe

Completed · Education · Concrete Thermal Mass Education Building · Temperate · 2006

A solid concrete cube (35m × 35m × 35m) with 128 windows of varying sizes punched through its walls at irregular intervals, heated entirely by solar gain through south-facing glazing and the thermal mass of its 1,200mm-thick concrete walls — no active heating system. One of the earliest demonstrations of pure thermal mass passive heating in a large public building in a Northern European climate.

Innovation highlights

• 1,200mm thick concrete walls as sole thermal regulation system in a continental climate
• no active heating or mechanical ventilation
• 128 irregular window apertures computationally placed for controlled daylighting and solar gain
• thermal mass strategy validated for a large public institution in Germany
• monolithic concrete construction reducing material complexity

Client / Developer

Development Association Zollverein

Architect

SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa)

Engineer

Bollinger + Grohmann

Type

Concrete Thermal Mass Education Building

#thermal mass #passive heating #solid concrete #no HVAC #education #computational aperture design

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