GfA ELEKTROMATEN GmbH & Co KG

Excellent “suitability for grandchildren”

With the extensive expansion of its company headquarters in Düsseldorf-Heerdt, GfA ELEKTROMATEN GmbH & Co. KG is setting an example in terms of sustainability: the new multi-storey office building is certified as a passive house, the adjacent production hall for research and development with underground parking is certified as a KfW 55 building and a photovoltaic system covers two thirds of the electricity requirements. In addition, electric charging stations for cars, intelligent lighting and building control, energy-efficient air conditioning technology and lush exterior, interior and roof greening provide ecological benefits. Not least for this “grandchild-friendly” building complex, the company was awarded the Düsseldorf Environmental Prize in 2019.

Photo @ Philip Kistner

In recent years, GfA ELEKTROMATEN GmbH & Co. KG has been characterized by growth. The market leader in operators and control units for industrial doors sells around 220,000 operators and 150,000 door control units per year worldwide under the ELEKTROMATEN® brand name. The necessary expansion of personnel and production-related capacities made a comprehensive construction project necessary. The result is a multi-storey office building with approx. 3,200^m2 of gross floor area (GFA) for 170 future employees, an adjoining production hall for research and development (2,200^m2 GFA) with underground parking and an assembly hall (1,200^m2 GFA) as an extension to the existing warehouse. After 14 months of construction, the new company headquarters were ready for occupancy in October 2019. GfA invested a total of around 10 million euros – the largest investment in the company’s history to date.

The Ratingen branch of the nationwide Vollack Group was commissioned with the planning and implementation of the new buildings. Vollack was responsible for the construction of a new logistics hall in 2007 and the planning and construction of the fully automated high-bay warehouse in 2013. The foundation stone for the current expansion of the company headquarters was laid during the joint Phase ^ZERO® master planning project in 2012. “Phase ^NULL® is part of the Vollack method. We record the inventory, get to know the client’s needs and sound out the potential. This is how we lay the foundations for later planning,” explains Jo. Swodenk,Vollack Partner and Managing Director, who was responsible for the project. “Together with the customer, we work out the specific requirements profile based on the current work processes, the company’s own strategy, local conditions and budget specifications. This enables us to develop a tailor-made concept with a strong identity right from the start.”

Sustainable company headquarters
A key requirement for the new building complex was its sustainability – a key corporate value of GfA. “We make all our decisions not only on the basis of purely economic and strategic considerations, but always with the environment, the workforce and the region in mind,” explains Stephan Kleine, Managing Partner of GfA. The company has been involved in the City of Düsseldorf’s Ökoprofit certification project for several years now and is making a valuable contribution to climate protection with its savings in energy and water consumption and_{CO2 emissions}. The new building offered the opportunity to consistently continue this commitment. The decision was therefore made to build the office building to the passive house standard. The adjacent production hall was implemented as a KfW 55 building and a 720 square meter photovoltaic system was installed on its roof surface, which covers around a quarter of the total energy requirement. On the one hand, this has made it possible to significantly reduce energy requirements and, on the other, to generate renewable energy. Overall,_{CO2 emissions} have been reduced by 84 tons per year compared to the previously used buildings.

Photo @ Philip Kistner

Photo @ Philip Kistner

Photo @ Philip Kistner

Second largest officepassive house in NRW
As a specialist in the planning, construction and revitalization of sustainable, energy-efficient commercial properties, the Vollack Group has many years of expertise in passive house technology. “The passive house is a future-oriented building standard for energy-efficient, comfortable, economical and environmentally friendly construction with regard to the responsible use of increasingly scarce resources,” explains Jo. Swodenk. “And as the GfA building shows – incidentally the second largest certified passive office building in North Rhine-Westphalia – this is also possible without compromising on design freedom. A passive house doesn’t have to look like a shoebox.”

The two office blocks, three and two storeys respectively, are arranged at right angles to each other and accentuated by different façade materials. The front office wing was given an anthracite-coloured clinker brick façade, the transverse building a curtain wall made of high-pressure laminate with a wood look – both intelligently attached to optimize thermal bridges. Both parts of the building have already been planned with a view to adding another storey at a later date. The key elements of passive construction are a high-quality building envelope and ventilation technology. Optimum insulation and windows that protect against radiant cold in winter, as well as intelligently controlled external solar shading that prevents rooms from heating up, lead to significant savings in cooling and heating energy. Ventilation systems in which highly efficient heat recovery makes the heat from the exhaust air available again ensure consistently fresh air. In the GfA project, two gas engine heat pumps generate the additional heating and cooling energy required for the “fresh air heating”.

The perfect passive housepartner

Fresh air, heat and cooling energyenter the rooms via an innovative multi-floor construction. The development from ClimaLevel GmbH combines heating, cooling and ventilation in a single system. The combination of conventional underfloor heating and airflow makes this solution as responsive as it is energy-efficient. In addition, the sophisticated ventilation technology ensures a constantly optimal room climate, which prevents the unpleasant side effects of classic air conditioning systems such as draughts or “cold lakes” on the floor.