Car park façade made of pre-painted aluminium sets high standards of aesthetics and efficiency

The new car park built as a split-level construction has eleven half-story floors which are offset against each other. Covering an area of 7,500 m2 , the new car park offers 294 additional parking spaces for patients, visitors and employees of the Herford clinic. A pedestrian bridge leading through a forest of trees connects the car park with the main entrance of the clinic.

The car park was built as a reinforced concrete system construction with a decorative façade cladding in form of a metal-pilaster strip façade by GOLDBECK GmbH, specialists for car park systems. For this purpose, eight different formed panel variations made of Novelis prepainted aluminium sheets in 1.25 mm thickness have been laid asymmetrically on a surface of 4,000 m2 using the colours Syracuse grey, Novara grey, Natal silver and Satina-green metallic. Identically formed panels have been installed differently in order to create a variety of geometrical forms and patterns.

The matt surface of the aluminium panels coil-coated with NWS lacquer avoids distorting light reflections in the neighbouring hospital and residential area. A further advantage is the hardness and the scratch resistance of the NWS lacquer systems. Due to the special bending of the façade elements, the visible side of the aluminium panels has the same surface coating and resistance both outside and inside the car park.

Regarding the choice of material, the easy processability as well as the lacquer and surface quality, which is produced in an environmentally friendly coil-coating process, tipped the scales in favour of Novelis pre-painted aluminium. After the completion of the industrial coating process and the application of a protective foil, the aluminium panels could be directly formed so that they were ready for use. A complicated subsequent powder-coating of the three-dimensional formed panels as well as additional effort while handling and transporting them could be avoided. Owing to their high-quality surface coating and an alloy that shows excellent performance when it comes to span widths and wind loads, Novelis façade panels does prove to be the right choice for many construction projects worldwide. Furthermore, Novelis façade panels stand out because of their longevity and efficiency.

Depending on the perspective of the viewer, the car park façade appears sometimes open and sometimes closed. From the inside, the building inspires the visitor through the incoming daylight, the good ventilation and the clear and open structure in all areas. Therefore, the building constantly appears in new variations depending on the time of the year or day and the angle of incidence of the sunlight.

From an ecological point of view, Novelis pre-painted aluminium is 100% recyclable. The aluminium that is produced during the recycling process only needs 5% of the energy that is necessary for the primary aluminium production. Novelis pre-painted aluminium for architectural purposes already consists of recycled aluminium to a large extent. Hence, the criteria for sustainable building are met to a high degree. Besides the sustainability considerations, safety aspects also played an important role for the choice of material: Novelis pre-painted aluminium is non-combustible and classified into the best fire rating class (A1) according to DIN EN 13501.

Another factor was the drastic reduction of the initially planned sheet thickness of the formed panels from 1.75 mm to 1.25 mm. Without any negative consequences for flatness and stability, some 5,400 kg aluminium could be saved. Efficiency and economy in combination with individual design and perfect choice of material made a purely functional building into an architectural highlight.

In every respect, the formed and colourfully coated metal slats give the building a striking and distinctive appearance. The new building also caught the attention of the Association of German Architects (BDA) and is the winner of the good buildings prize awarded by the BDA from Ostwestfalen-Lippe in 2017.