The campus-like New Courts office development takes up Berlin’s traditional block structure and reinterprets it. Designed by welter+welter architekten BDA, the building has achieved DGNB Gold certification. A WAREMA window awning with an aluminium-coated outer surface shades the delicate all-glass façade and gives it a shimmering silver appearance.
Rising five to seven storeys, New Courts in Berlin-Wedding consists of five interconnected building sections.
Their meandering arrangement responds to the surrounding buildings and creates several courtyards and pedestrian routes. The glass façade reflects this open layout and, depending on the weather, the adjacent city park.
The approximately 20,000 square metres of office space were designed to accommodate different uses. The façade therefore needed to adapt flexibly to different floor plans. When a federal agency moved in, the space was ultimately divided mainly into individual offices and shared areas.
Instead of the usual 1.35-metre office grid, the façade was built on a double-width grid of 2.70 metres. An aluminium expanded-metal mesh is integrated into the insulated glazing of the spandrel panels. It reflects solar heat at floor level while also providing semi-transparent privacy screening.
The appearance of the mesh changes with the viewing angle. Its vertically arranged expanded-metal cells combine functional requirements with the façade design.
Philipp Welter, welter+welter partnerschaft von architekten mbH BDA, Berlin
The sun shading had to meet both design and building physics requirements. External sun shading was therefore planned to provide glare protection while reducing solar heat gain.
WAREMA SecuTex fabric A2 was used on the stairwell façade, where fire safety was a key consideration. The silicone-coated glass fibre fabric is classified as non-combustible under DIN 4102-A2 and therefore meets the project-specific fire safety requirements.
WAREMA SecuTex fabric can be used indoors in roller blinds and outdoors in window awnings. One side of the fabric has a vapour-deposited aluminium coating that creates a reflective surface.
“For the side facing the room, we chose a neutral light grey and oriented the aluminium side outwards. In addition to meeting the required fire safety standards, the material therefore helps reduce solar heat gain. When the sun shading is closed, it also gives the façade a silvery shimmer,” explains Philipp Welter.
The awning design originally planned was modified because of wind loads. Wind tunnel testing with a model of the building showed a lower wind speed threshold for the angled awnings. They would therefore have had to retract at lower wind speeds.
Working with the façade consultant, the team selected front-mounted awnings with WAREMA easyZIP side guides. A shading study took account of the different façade orientations. This allowed internal glare-control roller blinds with the same silver-coloured fabric to be used on the north-facing façades.
Connections for manually operated roller blinds have been provided at all windows so that the blinds can be retrofitted if needed. This flexible sun shading plan complements the use concept of the DGNB Gold-certified building.
Automatic sun shading control was part of the plans from the outset. The façade consultants, architects, developer, control system designers and WAREMA worked together to develop a solution tailored to the building’s requirements.
The controls allow the sun shading to respond precisely to the prevailing conditions. This can reduce solar heat gain in summer and help retain heat in winter.
Three questions for façade consultant Andreé Franke of IBF Ingenieurbüro Franke GmbH & Co. KG, a member of UBF (Independent Consultants for Façade Technology)
Today, the façades of office and commercial buildings in particular must be designed to maximise daylight, provide the best possible protection against summer heat and, especially at office workstations, allow comfortable screen use. Bringing in a façade consultant during the design phase helps resolve technical details early. The technical design of sun shading systems has a major effect on the appearance of the façade, while fire safety requirements and exposure to wind can also significantly influence the architecture. User comfort requirements, such as automatically adjusting external venetian blind slats to the position of the sun or integrating room temperature control, can also be considered early in the planning process.
A wind study should be used to determine the necessary wind speed thresholds, especially for buildings with complex shapes where wind loads vary greatly between façades. The distance between the shading fabric and the façade structure is important when setting the wind limits. Any airflow behind the fabric from the sides lowers the wind speed threshold. Wind simulation results therefore have a significant effect on the design of the sun shading systems and should be included early in the plans. This is especially important if the use of sun shading is factored into the building’s energy balance. A wind simulation is also needed to determine how many wind sensors are required and whether that number can be reduced.
The planned tenancy arrangements are crucial when designing controls for sun shading systems. In large rental units, it should generally be possible to override the controls from a central point. Individual window control is more complex, but it helps prevent frustration among users and supports flexible uses of the space. Potential changes in how the building is used, and their implications for the control system, must be considered. The project team should therefore discuss foreseeable user issues and their possible effects as early as the design phase.
- Project: New Courts office building
- Location: Gerichtstraße 48–49, 13347 Berlin
- Occupant: Federal agency
- Developer: Gerichtstraße 48 – 51 GmbH, Berlin
- Architecture: welter+welter partnerschaft von architekten mbH BDA, Berlin
- Façade consultancy: Ingenieurbüro Franke GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin
- Completion: 2023
- Certification: DGNB Gold
- Sun shading: WAREMA front-mounted awnings with easyZIP guides, size 130, with WAREMA SecuTex fabric A2; cassette roller blind L and bracket-mounted roller blind L with WAREMA SecuTex fabric A2
- Control system: WAREMA LON control system with sensor unit, MWG light/radio clock, MWG wind/light, MWG precipitation, MWG outside temperature, motor control units, I/O modules, touch control panel, logic based on the wind study, project-specific planning, commissioning, wind study application and year-round shading
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