The demanding building envelope of the multi-family home on the Kirchberg in the north-east of the city of Luxembourg was realized by the Ferisol S.à.R.L. sheet metal work company. The outcome speaks for itself: An eye-catcher in which structural sophistication and design are combined through craftsmanship.
The architect's idea was to create an unusual but elegant appearance for the main wing with its solid con-crete elements and the protruding extension. The cladding of the pitched roof and facade consists of pre-weathered 0.8 mm thick titanium zinc, which is given a fine blue-green shade thanks to a special surface treatment. According to the architect's design, the seams of the roof area and those of the façade should merge. Consequently, Michael Kirchen, master sheet metal worker and founder of the Ferisol company, used four different coverage widths of metal roofing sheets. The continuous seams allow for the seamless continuation of the covering elements and thus bring roof and facade together. The cladded total area of 250 m² is divided into 170 m² roof area and 180 m² facade.
"We wanted to find out what the biggest challenge in this project was. We had to invest a lot of brain power during the planning stage to meet the high demands on the optics. On the one hand, an internal box gutter was required, which, considering the continuation of the seams from the roof to the facade, should integrate itself without being noticed. There were also windows of different sizes, which also determined the design of the roofing. Furthermore, there was the requirement that no ventilated ridge should be visible from the front view of the building. And last but not least, the covering frames for the roof windows had to be designed in a visually inconspicuous way in order to give the overall picture a clean look," says Michael Kirchen.
"Thanks to the many years of cooperation with the architectural office and using the SEMA program, the details intended by the architect could be visualized and designed and then put into practice even in an early planning phase," according to Kirchen.
The high proportion of prefabrication that took place in the workshop was one special feature in production and assembly. Due to the many sloping areas, a great deal of attention had to be paid to make sure that everything fitted on the construction site when attaching the roofing sheets, right from the planning and work preparation stage. Large structural tolerances in the reinforced concrete substructure were another major challenge. There, the substructure of the cladding had to compensate for the corresponding differences.
We would like to thank Mr. Kirchen for the interesting insights into this really very successful project. In clos-ing, Mr. Kirchen added: "We have accomplished a really beautiful project on the Kirchberg, a very demand-ing project - and we are very excited about the result".
Architectural office: bureau d'architecture WeB s.àr.l.
Planning and execution: Sheet metal work company Ferisol S.à.R.L.
Construction software: SEMA
Material: Titanium zinc pre-weathered 0.8 mm, Oliva from elZinc