Case Study: Vitrahaus

CASE STUDY

Vitrahaus Müllheimer Straße 59 79576 Weil am Rhein Germany Herzog & de Meuron

Fig. 1 - Parti Plan Diagram

Fig. 2 - Parti Sectional Diagram

2

SITE SUMMARY

VITRAHAUS

Fig. 3 - Site Plan 1:5000

Fig. 4 - Site Section 1:2000

The Vitrahaus created a new exhibition space for Vitra’s Home Collection, equipped with the reception, shop, café and conference space on the ground floor (Kries, 2016). In the north of the Vitra campus, it was the new gateway to the site, finishing the front elevation of the site along with the Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry and Tadao Ando’s Conference Pavilion. On the other hand, it also faced a broader landscape directly: the urbanised plain of Rhein and the idyllic Tüllinger Hills (Herzog and de Meuron, 2010).

3

VITRAHAUS

SPATIAL SUMMARY

Basement

Ground Floor

First Floor

Second Floor

Third Floor

Fourth Floor

Fig. 5 - Floor Plans 1:1500

1. Storage 2. Service and maintenance 3. Restrooms 4. Reception 5. Shop 6. Café 7. Business Lounge 8. "Vitrine" exhibition space 9. Cloakroom 10. Back office 11. Delivery 12. Restrooms 13. Showrooms 14. Terrace

Fig. 6 - Key Section 1:1000

4

SPATIAL SUMMARY

Fig. 7 - Photo shows the building as an assemblage of stacked houses.

VITRAHAUS

Fig. 8 - The stack of houses created various interfaces, contributing to an interesting spatial experience.

Fig. 9 - Massing Diagram

Fig. 10 - Additive Subtractive Diagram

Fig. 11 - Plan to Section Diagram

Fig. 12 - Symmetry & Balance Diagram

5

VITRAHAUS

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

The programmatic strategy of the Vitrahaus was relatively simple.

The ground floor was multifunctional. The exhibition vitrine with series of legendary chair design collection was a show window inwards to the campus; the business lounge towards the plain of Rhein also acted as an area for lectures and other events (Kaltenbach, 2017). The café as a popular meeting place, along with the reception and shop faced towards the forest outside the site. Then they all shaped the wooden planked central courtyard (Fig. 15a).

The upper floors are showrooms for the furniture. Then the architects paid more attention to the connection inside and outside the building to creating an inviting space. On the first floor, the two showrooms with fully glazed end provided the view to the Vitra Design Museum and Conference Pavilion respectively on the one side, and River Rhein on the other, then connected by the third showroom (Fig. 15b). The second floor provided perspective towards the campus, as well as the forest (Fig. 15c).

The third floor, again, offered the scene of Rhein (, and visitors could have a broader view on the top floor.

All the levels were connected by those “worm-like” staircases at the intersections. Visitors could slowly wind their way to the top and back to the start point by lift, or the tour could be the other way around.

Fig. 13 - Grond Floor Circulation To Use Diagram

6

Fig. 14 - Ground Floor Hierarchy Diagram

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

VITRAHAUS

a Major circulation on ground floor and its connection with surroundings

b Major circulation on first floor and its connection with surroundings

c Major circulation on second floor and its connection with surroundings

d Major circulation on third floor and its connection with surroundings

Fig. 15 - Programme Analysis Diagrams

7

VITRAHAUS

LANGUAGE SUMMARY

The form of the Vitrahaus was easy to understand.

The architects, again, chose the basic ur-type house as the basic elements of the building like some of their previous projects. It had pitched roof similar to the vernacular dwellings in the surrounding neighbourhood (Fig. 18a). In this case, they treated the gabled house form as abstract volumes, then stretched and extended it into various length, height and width based on their programme (Fig. 18b). The modules like café and business lounge were shorter and wider, while the showrooms had a scale more like a private house in section and cantilevered up to 15 meters (Mack, 2017) (Fig. 18c). The “domestic scale” of the showrooms provided an atmosphere suitable for the Vitra’s Home Collection rather than a conventional museum (Herzog and de Meuron, 2010).

Then these volumes were stacked one on the other vertically into a five-storey structure, facing different directions and creating a series sculptural interface, making the single units into the complex mass (Fig. 18d).

From a distance, the monolithic abstract form would reduce into a twodimensional silhouette because of its dark façades and roofs. But the longitudinal sides of exhibition vitrine were characterised with wooden benches with curved walls inwards to the volume, in contrast to other cool and sharp-edged units, offering more interaction between the architecture and visitors (Kaltenbach, 2017).

Fig. 16 - Parti Diagram

8

Fig. 17 - Geometry Diagram

LANGUAGE SUMMARY

VITRAHAUS

a A ur-type house similar to vernacular dwellings

b Transformation based on utilization

c Turning into 3D volumes

d Stack volumes together

Fig. 18 - Language Drawings and Diagrams

Fig. 19 - Unit to Whole Diagram

Fig. 20 - Repetitive Diagram

9

VITRAHAUS

DESIGN INTEGRATION

One noticeable feature of the building should be the anthracite-coloured rendered facades and roofs. Due to the intersected form and those openings, visitors could have a better closeup to the roof area than conventional buildings (Fig. 21a), which made a visually harmonious roof more important (Baulinks, 2010).

In contrast to using a sheet-metal roof system, the architects applied bitumen membranes as the finishing of these gabled roofs. It was surprising, as bituminous membranes were common sealing flat roofs, while became rather rare on pitched roofs with 30% to 40% slope (Die Bitumenbahn, n.d.).

However, the coordination between the architects, manufacturer and contractors led to the optimal result.

Due to the various size of the roof area, the manufacturer produced individual layers with the respective length and then laid with particular caution after the construction to avoid contamination (Die Bitumenbahn, n.d.). The feature of the two-layer membranes also devoted to the optimum output. The protective film of lower layer also worked as a separating sheet, making it possible to be laid in a single operation; the upper layer could be welded with radiated heat, creating a homogeneous, void-free composite (Baulinks, 2010) (Fig. 21c).

The colour of the membranes was the result of the evaluation as well.

The manufacturer provided a series of samples from diamond white to slate grey, and the final output with dark slate grey was also a customised product (Baulinks, 2010). The colour, along with the appearance, enhanced the monolithic form of the building.

10

DESIGN INTEGRATION

VITRAHAUS

a The form of the building offered a closeup to the roof

c The two customised bitumen membrane layers provided a visually harmonious roof

Fig. 21 - Design Integration Illustrations

11

VITRAHAUS

ARC2009 FOCUS

Approved Document M The spatial characteristics of the building had a significant impact on the design of vertical circulation. As mentioned before, all the stairs were set at those intersections, following an irregular, seemingly random course (Mack, 2017) (Fig. 23). These “worm-like� staircases, created a playful experience for visitors. However, it was hard to say they could be achieved without the sacrifice of violating part of the building regulation.

The going and rise of the utility stair connecting the first and second floor for escape satisfied Section 1.3. It had a maximum number of risers with 13, which exceeded the maximum amount as a general stair, but still fitted the requirement as a utility stair, according to Section 1.18. The headroom also satisfied Section 1.11. The width of the stair, taking Document B Volume 2 into consideration as well, merely met the regulation after calculation. However, the length of one of the landing was smaller than the width of the flight, did not follow the regulation (Section 1.20).

The general access stair between the two floors also satisfied Section 1.3. However, it had a maximum number of risers with 16, much more than the regulation, the landing was even shorter than the requirement. Another critical issue of this staircase was that part of it had a width more than 5 meters, but lacked a central handrail required in Section 1.15.

Both stairs did not follow Section 1.7 with an apparent nosing, the handrails were also lower than standard (Section 1.34), so did other staircases in the building.

1.18 Number of steps

1.20 Lenghth of landing 1.3 Rise and going

1.7 Apparent nosing

1.34 Height of handrails

Fig. 22 - ARC2009 Focus Illustrations - Regulations for evaluations of both staircases

12

ARC2009 FOCUS

VITRAHAUS

Above The various interfaces contributed to the irregular staircases Left The model during the design process shows a group of “worm-like� staircases

Fig. 23 - ARC2009 Focus Illustrations - Irregular staircases

13

VITRAHAUS

ARC2009 FOCUS

Plan Document K 1.11 Height of headroom

Document B Table 7 Stair capacity for evacuation by width

Section

Document B Table C7 Floor space factors Calculation: Floor area needs a stair for evacuation: 243.3 (4th floor) + 314.5 (3rd floor) + 628.2 (2nd floor) + 808.7 (1st floor) = 1994.7m² Occupant capacity: 1994.7 ÷ 5 = 398.94, which between 375 (capacity for 1200mm wide stairs) and 410 (capacity for 1300mm wide stairs)

Detailed Section

The utility stair

Fig. 24 - ARC2009 Focus Illustrations - Utility stairs in the Vitrahaus

14

ARC2009 FOCUS

VITRAHAUS

Plan

Document K 1.15 Handrails for stairs more than 2 meters wide

Section

The general access stair

Detailed Section

Fig. 25 - ARC2009 Focus Illustrations - General access stairs in the Vitrahaus

15

VITRAHAUS

STRUCTURE

The form as a random stack of houses made the structure rather complex. Instead of the conventional structure system with posts or walls transferring vertical loading and beams or slab transforming horizontal loading, every house was an integral structure member-the floor, walls and roof all served as both horizontal and vertical load transferrer, rigidly connected, consisting a load-bearing tube. Then these tubes were rigidly connected to one another as well. With the pyramid shape of the building, loads could be distributed over more structure members as the loads increased towards the bottom (Fig. 27b). The lift shaft in the centre also provided additional horizontal bracing, All the primary structure elements, after the evaluation with steel and timber, were contrasted from in situ concrete due to its amorphous material properties (Ros, 2010).

The secondary structure should be the fully glazed faรงade at every end of the houses. The steel mullions of the faรงade were 3 centimetres only in wide (Frener and Reifer, 2018) (Fig. 27c), offered the possibility of implementing an unobstructed view to the Vitra campus and urban and natural landscape.

The charcoal-coloured umber finish of the external rendering, along with the slate grey bitumen membranes (Fig. 27d), consisted the tertiary structure, contributing to the abstract form of the architecture.

Ground Floor

Fig. 26 - Structure Diagram

16

First Floor

Second Floor

STRUCTURE

VITRAHAUS

a Primary, secondary, tertiary structures

b Primary structures - concrete load-bearing tubes

c Secondary sructures - fully glazed faรงade

d Tertiary structure - bitumen membranes and rendering

Fig. 27 - Structure Illustrations

17

VITRAHAUS

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

The construction of the Vitrahaus applied the latest technology and highquality materials.

Similar to other buildings in the Campus, the Vitrahaus used electricity mostly from pure hydropower, and the company-owned photovoltaic system and combined heat and power plant provide abundant green energy to it as well (Vitra, n.d.) (Fig. 28).

The building also introduced a water-to-water geothermal heat pump.

Using the energy of the groundwater from 22 meters depth, the pump could heat and cool the building efficiently (Fig. 29e). In addition, the designer made full use of the thermal properties of the massive concrete structure. An air-conditioning technology called concrete core tempering (CCT) was applied to the architecture. Using water flows through pipes through the concrete roofs, it provided an interior climate fully within the comfort zone, enhancing the efficiency of the heat pump system (Vitra, n.d.) (Fig. 31b). The triple glazing and the 160 millimetres rock wool insulation, contributed to the sustainability of the building as well (Vitra, n.d.) (Fig. 29g). The ventilation system via a rotary heat exchanger with heat recovery over 80 %, at last, could supply fresh air without losing the heat or cold of the exhaust air (Fig. 29f).

Due to the depth and orientation of the showrooms (Fig. 29d), artificial lights are essential. However, the energy-saving lamps and the great reduce of light at night made it more eco-friendly.

Fig. 28 - Sustainable energy utilisation in Vitra Campus

18

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

a Site Topography

b Sun Path During Equinox

d Sunlight analysis

VITRAHAUS

c Views

The buildings on the campus left enough room for each other. As a result, there is little obstruction both for views from the Vitrahaus and sunlight to it. However, due to the depth of the building compared with its opening, the Vitra house could hardly depend on direct sunlight. The analysis suggested that no matter summer or winter solstice, only the very end of the building could get direct sunlight when the glazed faรงade facing the sun directly, then artificial light became essential as the supplement of daylight.

e The geothermal heat pump madef The rotary heat exchanger, or the g The high-quality insulation, along full use of the relatively constant tem-thermal wheel, could transfer temper- with the massive concrete structure as perature of the groundwater over theature between fresh air and exhaust the thermal mass, also played an imyear. air by heat-absorbing materials. portant role in indoor air-conditioning.

Fig. 29 - Environmental Design Illustrations

19

VITRAHAUS

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

Heat loss form factor and overall glazing area to total surface area of façade

With a model built in SketchUp, it was convenient to get the accurate size of any area automatically, which made the calculation easier.

Calculation: Total floor area: 243.3 (4th floor) + 314.5 (3rd floor) + 628.2 (2nd floor) + 808.7 (1st floor) + 1371.3 (ground floor) = 3366 m² Total surface area: 9407.1 (Result of the entire model) HLFF = 8035.8 - 3366 = 2.79 Total glazed area = 1184 m² Total furface area of facade = 4309.7 m² 1184 ÷ 4309.7 = 0.275

Fig. 30 - Environmental Design Illustrations

20

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

a Heating during summer and winter

U-value

VITRAHAUS

b Vitrahaus was a relatively isolated building, using little natural ventilation and the heating from the environment then depended on thermal radiation. However, the use of the CCT system made full use of the feature of concrete, creating a more comfortable interior climate with little expense.

Calculation: Thermal resistance: Mineral rendering: 0.01 ÷ 0.57 = 0.0175 Rockwool insulation: 0.16 ÷ 0.04 = 4 Reinforced concrete: 0.25 ÷ 2.3 = 0.1087 Cavity: N/A Gypsum plasterboard: 0.025 ÷ 0.25 = 0.1 Total = 0.0175 + 4 + 0.1087+ 0.1 = 4.2262m²K/W U-value: 1 ÷ 4.2262 = 0.237 W/m²K

Document L2B U-value standard

c Detail Section of the Wall

The wall of the Vitrahaus had a lower U-value than standard, which means it was well insulated.

Fig. 31 - Environmental Design Illustrations

21

VITRAHAUS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baulinks (2010) Etwas Besonderes: Dachabdichtung für’s VitraHaus. Available at: https://www. baulinks.de/webplugin/2010/1061.php4 (Accessed: 28 April 2019).

Die Bitumenbahn (n.d.) VitraHaus. Available at: https://www.derdichtebau.de/vitrahaus.292.htm (Accessed: 28 April 2019).

Frener and Reifer (2018) Frener & Reifer Image brochure 2018. Available at: https://issuu.com/ frenerreifer/docs/2018_fr_broschuere_a4_eng_einzelsei (Accessed: 28 April 2019).

Herzog, J. and de Meuron, P. (2010) 294 VITRAHAUS. Available at: https://www. herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/276-300/294-vitrahaus.html (Accessed: 28 April 2019).

HM Department (2010) Approved Document L2B: Conservation of Fuel and Powerin New Buildings Other then Dwellings. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/540329/BR_PDF_AD_L2B_2013_ with_2016_amendments.pdf HM Department (2013) Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 2: buildings other than dwellinghouses (2006 edition incorporating the 2010 and 2013 amendments). Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/file/441669/BR_PDF_AD_B2_2013.pdf HM Department (2013) Approved Document K: protection from falling, collision and impact.

Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/443181/BR_PDF_AD_K_2013.pdf Kaltenbach, F. (2017) ‘Spatial sculpture or furniture market? The VitraHaus plays with simplicity and complexity’, in Hofmeister, S. (ed.) Herzog & de Meuron (DETAIL Special). München: DETAIL, p. 88.

Kries, M. (2016) The Vitra Campus. 2nd edn. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum.

Mack, G. (2017) Herzog & de Meuron 2005-2007. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Ros, N. (2010) Spaziergang der Kräfte. Available at: https://www.zpfing.ch/en/projekte/ projekteliste/049_vitrahaus.html (Accessed: 28 April 2019).

Vitra (n.d.) VitraHaus Ökologie und Nachhaltigkeit. Available at: https://www.chairholder.de/ publicdata/cms/reports/450/6_Oekologie_Nachhaltigkeit_VitraHaus.pdf (Accessed: 28 April 2019).

22

ILLUSTRATIONS

VITRAHAUS

Fig. 7 : Aris7934 (2013) VitraHaus. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/91067262@ N04/8342752681/sizes/l Fig. 8 : Marconogues (2010) Vitrahaus. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ mnogues/4503760014/sizes/o/ Fig. 21a : Ragunath V (2013) Vitrahaus. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ ragunath/4515492470/sizes/z/ Fig. 23 left : Elcroquis (2010) Vitrahaus. Available at: https://elcroquis.es/products/herzogpr4# Fig. 24 right bottom: von Altemeier, K (2010) Vitrahaus. Available at: https://www.stylepark. com/en/news/more-than-the-sum-of-little-houses Fig. 25 left bottom: Elcroquis (2010) Vitrahaus. Available at: https://elcroquis.es/products/ herzogpr4#

23

CASE STUDY VITRAHAUS

24