Twisted floors, light architecture and chicken

Ambitious architecture and structural engineering for fast food chain

The inner city chicken likes it modern. The Ruhr region is the home of many different types of dining experiences with everything from a gourmet restaurant to the French fries stand. Sometimes it simply has to be chicken, either as a salad or on a bread roll, but at the same time you do not want to get out of the car. That is when you drive to Mr. Chicken.
A representative new building is under construction in Gelsenkirchen – not only as a restaurant and drive-in but also as company headquarters.

Modern service companies which are dependent on walk-in customers require three conditions for their success: location, location and location. The Baz GbR in Gelsenkirchen decided therefore, that their restaurant and drive-in should be located with the best possible traffic links at the B227 at the corner of the Munscheidt- and Dessauerstrasse in Gelsenkirchen, very close to the central station. The company headquarters should be located here and also more space should be available. The 3,700 m² large plot is clearly visible and parking will be provided, too. The architects from ArchiFactory.de (Gelsenkirchen) have developed a striking, solitary standing building. It has an asymmetric hexagonal floor plan at 30 x 25 meter. Each of the five floors is positioned irregularly against the others and has a room height shining glass façade (see graphic).
The realisation of this unusual task was accepted by the Gebr. Brun Bauunternehmung GmbH (Heiden).

ArchiFactory.de: This is how the modern building will look like soon

Foundations

The carcassing started on 27th October 2009. The 80 cm thick, 530 m² large sole plate made from 380 m³ concrete on a ballast bed which contains 80 tons of reinforcements. The formworks were formed with the LOGO.3 by PASCHAL.
The work grounded to a halt in the severe winter 2009/2010 for 12 weeks due to frost.

Advanced architecture and constructional engineering

Beams were rejected as ceiling supports. Steel concrete pillars are used instead to hold the loads. In some areas screeds were fitted.
Obvious air-conditioning ducts are out – the focus is now on thermal building component activation in which entire construction elements (e.g. floors, walls, in this case, however, ceilings) act for both heating and cooling.
The latter is pretty much a necessity, since the façade is made almost entirely out of glass which will increase the heat build up in the building during the summer months.
The core of the building, cast out of in-situ concrete, is the unmistakable staircase. It reflects the rotated floors and each turn of the stairs has a different shape.

Formwork and formwork planning

Since each floor has its own shape which is twisted against the other horizontally, each floor had to be planned and formed individually. Ceiling edges, internal angles, plot boundaries and a demanding static makes this a very ambitious creation.
Before starting work, therefore all works were discuss with the suppliers for formwork and formwork plans and with the Elvermann GmbH (Dorsten-Lembeck), the PASCHAL authorized dealer, and a successful design was developed at latest.
All walls were built with the LOGO.3-formwork, the more complicated and smaller part areas were made with the MODULAR/GE universal formwork both from PASCHAL (Steinach).
Managing Director Michael Brun: "The small polygons could be formed easily due to the very good gradation of the MODULAR formwork."
Supporting elements, H20 supports and slab formwork formed the ceiling formwork while the concrete pillars were made with round columns forming tubes.
500 m² slab formwork was used per ceiling. Due to the efficient measure planning, the Brun GmbH only required 340 m² wall formwork and made quick headway.
A total of 650 m³ C30/37-concrete was used for the ceilings, 250 m³ for the walls as well as 240 tons of concrete reinforcement steel.

LOGO.3-System formwork

It is an outstandingly flexible system which delivers the best solution for most applications due to their balanced element sorting system of different widths measuring from 2.40 meter up to 1 cm small compensating parts as well as their heights of 3.40 to 0.75 meters (while up to 0.20 meters small elements can also be installed lying). Work, material and time consuming on site closure formworks are therefore avoided.
It has a permissible ready-mixed concrete absorption of 70 kN/m² as per DIN 18218 and consists of a solid, 5 mm strong, high-strength, profiled flat steel frame which makes them more resistant, durable and easier to repair as comparable systems and meets the flatness tolerance as per DIN 18202, table 3, line 6.

Urban planning and architectural design

The 3,700 m² property is located at a four lane southern gateway into Gelsenkirchen. The environment is characterised by the fragmented offshoots of block-border structure of Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf, the heterogenic border of a central market area as well as a small park. The urban face is marked by rear facades, extensions and terraced housing. The plastic structure of the new company headquarters is significantly different. The southern city border will be co-designed with this building.
Architect Matthias Herrmann: "The polygonal floor plan and the against each other staggered floor levels determine the design. The lack of symmetry comes close to circular shape, a place which focuses on itself yet generate collective associations. At the same time the staggered levels replicate in a way the old coal layers of the region. The building becomes a symbolic receptacle for the lost history of the city.”

Prospects

The construction site was completed with all parties duly satisfied. The topping-out ceremony was held on the 9th July 2010. Guests included the Mayor of Gelsenkirchen, Frank Baranowski, as well as Rudi Assauer. The sport's presenter Werner Hansch hosted the event. The interior fittings started on schedule.