EngelsmannPeters GmbH

Cologne Protestant Church building complex

Cologne-Mauenheim-Weidenpesch

A new building complex was built for the Protestant church in Cologne with mixed functions, in particular a church, parish hall, parish office, apartments and daycare center. In terms of urban space, the building confidently makes a strong statement in its surroundings. The new 8-storey building has two basement levels including underground parking. The upper floors house the actual church, the associated community facilities and numerous residential units. The basement opens up to the garden at the rear and is primarily used as a daycare center, but also houses storage and technical areas. The underground parking garage on the 2nd basement level is accessed via an external ramp.

A reinforced concrete structure consisting of floor slabs, columns and wall panels was developed for the supporting structure of the new building. The components for the vertical load transfer, i.e. the columns and walls, are generally carried to the foundation without any offsets. Particularly in the area of the church interior and the two representative entrances, the load transfer is not regular. In these challenging special areas, the wall sections were designed as partially multi-storey, wall-like beams in order to make sensible use of the system heights. The sophisticated structural concept allows for a column-free design of the church hall and the adjoining group rooms, which are therefore not subject to any functional restrictions.

The building is designed to be completely jointless, with no expansion joints between individual components and areas. The floor slabs are designed as flat slabs, which are supported on wall panels, columns and peripheral edge beams along the outer façade. The component dimensions were optimized over several work phases depending on the spans and actions. The building is founded on an economically favorable shallow foundation. The floor slab and the external walls of the first basement level in contact with the ground were constructed as a white tank in waterproof concrete. The façade is multi-layered and consists of exposed brickwork. Structural dynamic investigations were carried out for the bell tower.

client

Protestant parish Cologne-Mauenheim-Weidenpesch

Our service

Structural design LP 1-6, 8

architect

harris + kurrle architects BD

Planning and construction

2016-2022

Images

Roland Halbe

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