Opernturm, Germany

One of Germany’s first LEED gold certified buildings, designed to consume 23% less energy, required high performance indoor solar shading.

THE BUILDING
The Opernturm consists of a 42-storey, 170 m tower, a 7-storey, 26 m podium building facing towards Alte Oper (operahouse). Access is through an 18 m (59 ft) high lobby. The yellow-beige stone cladding of the facades was designed to fit in with the exisiting buildings surrounding Opernplatz. Designed to consume 23 percent less energy than stipulated by Germany’s 2007 EnEV Energy Regulation, the Opernturm was one of the first office buildings in Europe to be certified to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard (source: wikipedia).

THE REQUIREMENT
The office building required a comfortable and healthy indoor environment for the people working inside. This meant an excellent visual and thermal quality according to the directives for workstations and solar shading requirements. The design of the building made it impossible to use outside solar shading solutions.