Forum Gold and Silver in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany

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Facade Supporting Structure

The following data refer to the facade construction.

Length: ~ 82 ft | Width: ~ 82 ft | Height: ~ 82 ft | Weight: ~ 61 t
Number of Nodes: 811 | Members: 1,276 | Materials: 2 | Cross-sections: 7

The house is intended to be used as a place for presentations and events which are associated with matters of gold and silver as well as design.

The design of the building was commissioned by the German planning office isin architekten after winning the design competition. The German engineering office Klöckner carried out the structural calculation of the facade's supporting structure using RSTAB. They used RFEM for the facade cassettes. In connection with a wind report created by the German I.F.I. Institute for Industrial Aerodynamics, the wind loads to be applied were determined with a model put in a wind tunnel.

Facade Structure

The facade envelops the building like a coat made of gold leaf. But in reality, the approximately 800 facade plates of 4.9 ft x 4.9 ft consist of an aluminum alloy that is coated on both sides with DURAFLON®, a FEVE stove enamel finish for facades.

The steel supporting structure of the facade consists of 1,276 members altogether, with steel grades of S 235 and S 355. It is fixed to the building at 80 points. Ten round pipe columns of d=6.2 inches bear the majority of the vertical loads.

The RSTAB add-on module STEEL EC3 was used for the calculation. The facade cassettes with a thickness of 0.11 inches were calculated using the RFEM modules RF‑IMP, RF‑STABILITY, and RF‑STEEL Surfaces.

The cassettes are stiffened in the field by aluminum edge profiles. These were designed in RF‑ALUMINUM.