BAU 2009: Europe's Architecture, Materials, & Systems Fair

 

by Marina Hoffman

"Bau" (German word meaning building/construction) is Europe’s most important trade fair for Architecture, materials and systems.  The fair, visited by a wide variety of people in the design and construction industry takes place every two years in Munich, Germany.  A record 211,000 visitors from 151 countries and nearly 2,000 exhibitors made BAU 2009 the best year in their 40 year history.

This year’s program included lectures like “The Future of Building” and “MacroArchitecture” given by German architects working internationally, such as Stefan Behnisch (www.behnisch.com), Eckhard Gerber (www.gerberarchitekten.de), and Volkwin Marg (www.gmp-architekten.de), resulting in crowded lecture halls.  Other topics like “Sustainable and energy-efficient building for the future,” presented by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, covered the entire range of sustainable building from practical guidelines and construction services to the current policies of the E.U. to promote global sustainable building and energy savings.

Without reading upfront about the big push for sustainability at this year’s fair, products incorporating solar power made it obvious - all of the Curtain Wall manufacturers presented systems with integrated photovoltaic’s. A German friend of mine who fabricates louver glass systems said he was asked from the visitors if he offers it too.  So it looks like the push for renewable energy is not coming from the manufacturers, but from the users.

One of the first (and also biggest) stands I visited was from the curtain wall manufacturer Schüco. I have to say I was amazed by their product appearance and advanced technology they use. The Schüco E² Facade, with its credo "Energy2 - Saving energy, generating energy", is a new façade system with innovative solutions for the modern building envelope, which saves and generates energy at the same time. The integration of photovoltaics, solar thermal transfer, thermal insulation, solar shading and decentralized mechanical ventilation with heat recovery provides consistent automation for floor-to-ceiling glazing. The result is maximum energy efficiency, economical building construction, a high-quality appearance and optimum comfort levels. At the same time, the functional units in the facade are a design feature of a new and innovative architectural style.

Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake’s new Sculpture Building at Yale University in New Haven, CT recently employed Schüco’s sustainable and innovative building envelope system. The system features energy-efficient triple-layer glass façade with its ceiling-high windows and high-performance sun control. 

Also, the facade's integrated translucent panels are filled with a special aerogel. They reduce the sun's heat transfer, improve the building's energy balance, let in 20% of the naturally occurring light thus creating glare-free interior lighting, and are attractive from a design standpoint. It also earned the U.S. Green Building Council's platinum LEED certificate. For more info visit: www.schuco-usa.com or www.kierantimberlake.com .

In addition to the E² façade exhibit, Schüco’s 2° Concept was introduced. It was a show stopper and technologically advanced but I doubt we will ever have a budget which will allow us to use it. The overall goal of energy-efficiency, aesthetics, and limiting global climate change to 2°C comprised the product’s name, design and prototype.  The Concept layers a building with four, high-performance skins, decreasing a building’s heating and cooling needs by 80%, by intelligently controlling heat transfer. The main layer is a glass panel system with additional panels which slide over the glass depending on the weather conditions.  A panel filled with thermogel to retain warmth in winter nights, a sun shading panel and a photovoltaic panel complete the system. Not all four layers have to be used in a system. This fair will determine if there is enough interest for this concept to be brought on the market, and if so, this technology could be available by 2011.

The other companies whose stand I visited and which I think you should be informed about are:

Cricursa – Spanish glass company out of the box! If you want the guardrail on the spiral stairs to be solid glass or any other crazy curved and organic shape they are one to call. Most known projects would be Prada, Tokio and 40 Bond St, New York by H&deM and Milwaukee Art Museum by Santiago Calatrava etc. You can find out more on the www.cricursa.com

Solarlux  - great exterior and interior glass folding walls view at www.solarlux-nana.com                    

Sky-Frame – Swiss made system for large-surface sliding windows whose surrounding frame can be installed flush with walls, ceilings and floors - the only visible part of the frame is a 20 mm (0.8”) thin vertical frame where two elements overlap. www.sky-frame.ch

Lamberts Linit – U-profile glass which I hope we will get to use on one of our projects some day. Great example of its use is Steven Hall’s Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. www.lamberts.info

Ubor & Prodema – exterior and interior wood and metal cladding (including corten) plus plant (green) façade systems. www.ubor.net and www.prodema.com

Unfortunately the time allowed me to visit the fair for only one day so I missed many good lectures.  Due to its size I preselected the halls and exhibitors I found interesting and of course I discovered some others along the way. I also ran into some university friends and colleagues from Croatia!

No doubt there are many other great products I had no time to visit and/or discover but this gives you enough homework anyway. I really hope you will visit some of the given links and be inspired!

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