Kiefer Technic ShowroomRealized

For many years, Ernst Giselbrecht has been involved in just as many projects that focus on the topic of contemporary façades. He has been able to consistently implement the continually evolving vision of dynamic facades with his design for the Kiefer Technic Showroom. This was made possible by a building assignment which allowed an almost playful light-heartedness and a developer who placed
the highest value on technical perfection and could produce the facade elements in his in-house development department.

The task was the construction of a new showroom, an addition to the production halls of the Kiefer metal construction company in Bad Gleichenberg, Styria. The two-storey, free-form shape in the floor plan sits offset in front of the narrow edge of the existing building and is accessible via a delicate metal bridge off to the side. The partly two-storey ground floor provides plenty of space for the open
presentation of products between a few narrow columns. A staircase leads to the gallery on the upper floor with an office and meeting area, as well as a link to the adjacent production hall.

However, the most important element of the building is the two-shell glass-aluminium facade, which, with its gentle arch, is both subtle and unmissable and acts as the company’s new calling card.
Moveable, perforated aluminium panels sit in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass elements. Powered by electric motors which can be individually controlled using a BUS/PLC system, they form a dynamic, three-dimensional folded structure over just 29x8 metres. Centrally or individually controlled, they allow one to change amount of sunlight, lighting mood and view, as well as the external effect.

In addition to structural, maintenance and weather-related (e.g. strong winds in the case of moveable external parts) requirements for the building shell, the architectural dimensions were also of equal importance for Ernst Giselbrecht: the facade as a separation between the private and public spheres, and as a representative face of the building. Innovative technologies allow a dynamic facade design, which, when carefully utilised, allows for the further development of the functional, social and aesthetic aspects of traditional facades with the added benefit of variability. The dynamic shell puts the emphasis not on its separating but on its mediating qualitites and becomes a method of communication between the buildings, with the environment and with people.

At its opening, this prototype proved the poetic potential of dynamic facades and, with the help of an ingeniously choreographed ‘ballet’, made it to the Venice Biennale and became a YouTube hit.

(Text: DI Martin Grabner)