Group Headquarters Bayer AG, Leverkusen
Group Headquarters Bayer AG, Leverkusen
American architect Helmut Jahn sought to juxtapose the contemporary architecture of the new administrative building with the existing historic campus buildings of Bayer AG in Leverkusen, with the new building’s design utilising transparent aesthetics and environmental sustainability.
The half-elliptical building is closed off on its wings by a double façade, featuring an aluminium structure as inner shell and a suspended all-glass façade as the outer shell. The double façade is a crucial component in the building’s energy plan. The façade’s ESG and LSG glazing is mounted on vertical glass fins with stainless steel cast fittings. Centrally arranged drive motors ventilate the space between the façades via 966 glass doors with stainless-steel drive mechanisms.
The glass entrance hall created by seele, which divides the middle building into two wings, is an eye-catcher and the building’s most dazzling feature. The cable façade covering almost 1,250 m2 stands out owing to its high transparency and light permeability.
The half-elliptical building is closed off on its wings by a double façade, featuring an aluminium structure as inner shell and a suspended all-glass façade as the outer shell. The double façade is a crucial component in the building’s energy plan. The façade’s ESG and LSG glazing is mounted on vertical glass fins with stainless steel cast fittings. Centrally arranged drive motors ventilate the space between the façades via 966 glass doors with stainless-steel drive mechanisms.
The glass entrance hall created by seele, which divides the middle building into two wings, is an eye-catcher and the building’s most dazzling feature. The cable façade covering almost 1,250 m2 stands out owing to its high transparency and light permeability.
To achieve this effect, approximately 70 steel cables suspended in the roof structure were anchored to the ground using spring brackets. Its tension is designed so that an amplitude displacement of the all-glass façade with wind pressure of up to 90 cm is possible (i.e. with pressure of +45 cm and suction of -40 cm). At the same time, the cables bear the load of the glass panes suspended on the nodes. Fixed underneath and hinged above, they can absorb the theoretically calculated movements of the façade with no damage. The vertical joints are wet jointed, while the horizontal ones have a silicone profile. A thin steel cable holds the sides of the glass supports in position.
