Sustainability. Experience. Partnership.
First passive house-certified day-care centre in Rhineland-Palatinate
The kick-off for a project that was as responsible as it was ambitious came in 2011. The city of Wittlich plans the only passive house day-care centre in Rhineland-Palatinate: the Vitelliuspark Evangelical Kindergarten. The success of the building project is the result of the continuous collaboration and partnership of the companies participating in it.
Sustainability as motto
"The executing companies were assigned the specification that the products to be used for the installation had to be passive house-compatible", explains Joachim Bollig, Business Manager at Bollig Fensterbau in Landscheid. As the executing window fabricator, Mr Bollig was aware of the technical demands being made of the materials: "The prerequisites for the window elements were accordingly high, which is why we had proposed GUTMANN MIRA therm 08. As a result, we received the order from the city of Wittlich for the manufacture and installation of the passive house-certified wood-aluminium windows." In order to minimise thermal bridges, the windows and exterior doors were mounted on reveal frames made of construction plywood and pushed into the insulation level. The wide-span roof construction made of wood is insulated with 40 cm cellulose, the outer walls with a 35 cm-thick thermal insulation composite system. A 30 cm perimeter insulation layer is located underneath the foundation plate.
Hajo Edelhoff, executive planner for the Wittlich city administration, emphasises the economic aspect that extends beyond the insulation itself: "The building can be readily heated or cooled using a brine geothermal pump via controlled aeration and ventilation and the concrete core activation of the foundation plate. This means that a uniform temperature can be ensured inside the building. A PV system is installed on the roof of the day-care centre with a rated output of around 77 kWp."
Systematic wood-aluminium
195 m² of the MIRA therm 08-PH 68 and 78 systems and of the LARA GF 50-PH were installed in the window and façade areas. The former was used specifically with the window elements and entry doors. "It was important to us to build a type of wood-aluminium-window that not every window manufacturer would be able to make", says Joachim Bollig in explanation of what he was looking for. "We are craftsmen and distinguish ourselves from the mass of window builders, in that we produce windows which are individually tailored to customer preferences – quality instead of quantity. With GUTMANN MIRA therm 08 we were able to solve a basic problem: creating a passive house-certified wood-aluminium window. The collaboration between GUTMANN Bausysteme GmbH, the city of Wittlich – Mr Edelhoff – and our company was excellent from the start. Any technical problems that arise are discussed and resolved via direct channels."
Joachim Bollig has already brought in his affinity for wood-aluminium constructions in other projects, as for example in the new build of a day-care centre - mother house of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo - in Trier or the conversion of the "Old Train Station" in Trittheim into a wine shop. He was therefore able to apply his expertise in optimal fashion to the "Vitelliuspark" project: "My father and company founder Erwin Bollig played a decisive role in 1963 in the development of a wood-aluminium window system. Thanks to his knowledge and experience in the area of wood-aluminium, we have secured for ourselves a good market position since 1967. Around 2006/2007, we decided to manufacture GUTMANN wood-aluminium window systems. Thanks to the variety of wood-aluminium profiles, we can offer our customers a wide selection. For us, this presents us with the opportunity – and the challenge – of implementing projects with our principals that we would not have produced without GUTMANN. We see the advantages in terms of aesthetics, low maintenance costs for the end consumer, good thermal insulation and durability – wood is a naturally renewable raw material and aluminium can be recycled."