Concept and planning of the building services for the Dom-Römer quarter

27.07.2016
Photo: © CANZLER

CANZLER has advanced the facilities services system concept for 22 of the 35 old town houses and the underground carpark for the Dom-Römer quarter and is supervising its realization. Canzler’s advisory engineers have already been entrusted with a subproject for the technical equipment of a new underground station exit of the Dom-Römer stop since 2012.

With the reconstruction of Frankfurt’s Old Town, the city is regaining a piece of its historical urban landscape destroyed in the war. 35 old town houses will be constructed in the Dom-Römer area spanning 7,000 square meters, which will be subdivided into four construction fields. 15 of these houses will be reconstructions, 20 will be new buildings. The 80 apartments as well as the ground floor spaces with gastronomy, retail and craft trade are under construction, with building works commenced in October 2015. The technical facilities for the old town houses and their basements are located in the underground car park (20,000 square meters), which comprises over 600 parking lots. Finalization is planned for late 2017.

Every step of planning has to be on target

It is already CANZLER’s second job in the Dom-Römer quarter. The scope of work includes planning and supervision of the technical plant and equipment for the mechanical side and the building automation system of 15 new buildings and seven reconstructions based on historical models, as well as the firefighting systems in the underground car park. The conversion measures of the subjacent traffic facility of the underground station were begun beforehand: here, a second exit with escalators and an intermediary level for the technological systems were built. CANZLER engineers were already responsible the planning services for the technical plant and equipment in cooperation with FAAG Technik as early as 2011. The technical facilities for the exit will be concluded while the facility is in operation and will first be completed once the shell of the old townhouse at Markt 8 is finalized in 2016. “Many points of intersection must be coordinated in terms of the traffic facility construction alone, which include those between the responsible authorities such as fire protection and regional council, the transport operator Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main and the contractor of the Dom-Römer quarter,” explains Andrej Diebels, responsible project manager at CANZLER.

The CANZLER engineers are already acquainted with the complexity of the construction project. They are familiar with the concerns of the various property architects, the specialists and users, as well as the different requirements. CANZLER conflates almost all of the results and planning steps, such that the contractor DomRömer GmbH has just one point of contact for the building technology in this area. The CANZLER team is responsible for planning and surveillance of the implementation of drinking water systems, heat supply, ventilation and air conditioning technology, elevators and the entire building management system of 22 properties. Yet there are 14 different architecture studios involved for the 22 old town houses alone. “Even coordinating all of the contact persons is a challenge in itself,” says Diebels. The buildings are highly compartmentalized and planned for a relatively small surface area. Constructional and technical requirements such as fire protection or energy saving regulations mean that the buildings cannot be constructed at the same time, but work must incrementally. For example, the completion of a shell construction is followed by thermal insulation measures, before the adjoining building is constructed. The building technologies are implemented at the same time. “It is of utmost importance that the building services are implemented within the set deadlines and to the highest standard,” relates Diebels. The different building types and high number of old town houses on the site must be brought in line with the current regulations and guidelines. The project engineer stresses: “It is a case of taking the technical requirements the city has when it comes to passive house components and the sources for the reconstruction buildings into account.” In addition, there are the different building methods of the houses to consider, ranging from concrete and Poroton tiles to wood frame construction.