GREEN BUILDING. THE MARKET OF THE FUTURE.

Green tech – for centuries an issue in this area. In this district, once part of the Stuttgart Silk Gardens, silkworm moths were bred in mulberry tree plantations for the local silk industry. And even today, green construction materials must dominate. Sustainable commercial and domestic quality: this also involves the facade. EIFS and clinker brick slips are the Green Tech Team.

The media sometimes doesn‘t know any better, but in his interview even the architect will only talk about the clinker effect and a clinker brick facade. Yet here the construction material giving the facade its durable accents has a name. And it‘s now very much in fashion: clinker brick slips. In combination with EIFS, it‘s a real winner in terms of Green Tech. Since the selection of materials contributes to obtaining a German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) certification and nomination to be a “Green Building”. And that is where this facade treatment excels.

Renovating the headquarters of AOK , which the company first occupied in 1925, was too expensive, so an investor competition was announced for the 11,000 m² area in Breitscheidstraße. Sustainability and low operating costs were the main requirements. Keywords that could be read in every one of the numerous releases. And the first construction phase was in fact awarded a “Green Building” certification according to DGNB standards. That means: this construction project conserved resources and was built using lots of organic materials. The decision for the sustainable combination of clinker brick slips and exterior insulation and finishing system (EIFS) on the facade was a deliberate one. And so was the decision against two-leaf masonry, with clinker bricks as facing. There was nothing to be found in the documents about that. Yet clinker brick slips are the slimline, green tech offspring of the clinker brick. In conjunction with modern EIFS, they effortlessly fulfill even the stringent 2015 Energy Saving Ordinance requirements (EnEV ). But architect Stefan Willwersch isn‘t just bringing clinker brick slips to Stuttgart. He‘s also raising the profile of the latterly rather neglected design feature, the “joint”. He has divided the whole building into three parts using two vertical joints in the facade, which run up the full elevation. The renowned architect has thereby given the building an “unmistakable identity”, according to the press. Clinker brick slips also have that. And their own name. After all, you don‘t call a MINI a BMW.