Large-scale project with highest fire safety requirements

With four high-rise buildings in the heart of Frankfurt city centre, Dutch architect Ben Van Berkel and his team at UNS have created a multifunctional building complex and intend to revitalise Frankfurt's increasingly isolated banking district as an urban location. Van Berkel himself describes this commission as a gift. “As an architect, you don't often get the opportunity to develop a design for a location with so much untapped potential.” On the site, 16,141 m² have been divided into four real estate sections, creating a “city within a city” with 213,000 m² of gross floor area. The four towers, which stretch up to 233 metres high, are connected at their base and offer space for almost 600 apartments, prestigious office floors, a lifestyle hotel, a long-stay hotel, a day-care centre and an urban mix of retail outlets.

In general, fire protection is of enormous importance in large-scale projects, but this is especially important with architecture that includes so much openness. The focus here is that fire protection compartments should be divided in a way that is as inconspicuous and barrier-free as possible. Due to the diverse requirements and changes of use that are frequently expected, “FOUR Frankfurt” also requires highly flexible, multifunctional solutions. The architects that make up the planning entity of UNS+HPP, hhpberlin – Ingenieure für Brandschutz GmbH, Berlin, together with the client Groß & Partner Grundstücksentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, Frankfurt am Main, decided to work closely with Schüco to tackle the issue of fire protection.

Given the demanding project requirements of “FOUR Frankfurt,” in-depth expertise was needed: all fire protection partitions are considered to be units and, as such, their entire construction must be tested for fire protection. From a fire protection perspective, a situation with “dry walling on the right and a connection to a concrete wall on the left” cannot be considered as effective as a connection to a concrete wall on both sides. Where necessary, separate fire protection tests may be required. These tests are both time-consuming and expensive. To avoid any unnecessary disruption to the construction process that may be caused by these tests, especially in the case of short-term planning changes, Schüco conducts all necessary fire protection tests on the most common installation situations. Additionally, there is already plenty of information available regarding the selected FireStop ADS 90 FR 30 and FR 90 multifunctional fire and smoke doors.

When it comes to versatile products like FireStop, not all installation situations or design versions (installed fittings, for example) can be tested in advance for fire protection purposes. This is where the architectural consulting team at Schüco proves to be a huge advantage. “With large-scale projects, we are often in close contact with those involved in the planning process at a very early stage,” says Jochen Kluge, Security Project Manager at Schüco. “In some instances, we already brought detailed plans to the table and, if there is something that needs checking in terms of fire protection, we can get started straight away – even without placing orders to cover costs,” adds Kluge. Thanks to our long-standing collaborations, this approach is familiar to many architects and knowing that valuable time would not be lost having to complete the required subsequent inspections was one of the main reasons for working together with Schüco on “FOUR Frankfurt.”

Frank Burkhardt from RFE Rauch- und Feuerschutz-Elemente, which is the company that manufactured the fire doors, goes on to add that: “The open rebate profile of FireStop is something special. The doors can also still be converted after they are installed and commissioned. This was another important factor in winning the client’s approval.” In short, those involved on the project opted for Schüco because of the high level of consulting expertise as well as their profile system, which boasts unique flexibility and fire protection technology. In keeping with the principle of “open profiles for open architecture”, the Schüco FireStop fire and smoke doors are now an essential component of the fire protection concept.