Extra thin, as desired by the customer

The VW plant Toferer in Eferding, Austria, is the first car company in VW's new Corporate Architecture to be equipped with screens. Two simple portals, a continuous framework, a large glass curtain wall and smooth anthracite-colored Fixscreens from Renson define the building. It looks sober, simple and beautiful at the same time. Many VW branches will follow.

Anthracite screens

VW's marketing department in Wolfsburg developed the new CI (Corporate Identity) in 2012. From this, the Corporate Design and Corporate Architecture were then derived. The company Porsche Immobilien GmbH in Salzburg is responsible for proper implementation of the CI. The company designs and controls the appearance of VW branches. Porsche Immobilien: "With the increasingly stringent energy requirements for buildings, shadows on windows, among other things, play an important role. In the unlit state, windows are dark surfaces. Dark screens therefore deviate only minimally from the ideal design. They look modern and prevent disturbing light reflections, hence our preference."

Slim and functional

Gerhard Schimpl of GS-Plan from St. Johann am Walde worked out the facade shading. He had already been asked a few years ago about CI-compliant shading using slats, but these did not fit the design. GS-plan was therefore commissioned to look for suitable screens. Gerhard: "Screens are standardly equipped with guide rails that are hung in front of the glass facade with spacer brackets. That looks wide and ugly. I looked for a system that I could mount directly in front of the curtain wall in the form of a trim. This created a narrow, double guide rail that was clicked directly onto the facade frame. This solution allows for a very sober look that is functionally perfect at the same time." But the "slim" idea brought complexity. The customer wanted screens over 20 square meters in size that were strong and wind-resistant. The number of potential suppliers quickly dwindled.

Fixscreen minimized

Gerhard Schimpl came across the Renson Fixscreen 150. The Customized Solutions department developed a special profile for a 60-millimeter-wide curtain wall. Geert Schoenaers, project engineer at Renson, was already working on a solution for curtain walls anyway, so the client's wish fitted perfectly with the ongoing internal project. The double guide rails were built even thinner and can now be screwed completely smooth and aesthetically in front of the frames without visible fasteners.

With the Fixscreen 150, surfaces of up to 22 square meters and up to wind speeds of 130 km/h can be realized. The 8.5 meter high windows of the VW plant in Toferer are shaded with two sizes of screens. The narrow screens measure 2.4 x 5.2 meters, the wide ones 4.8 x 2.6 meters. The biggest difficulty here, however, was not the narrow guide rails at the window pillars. Geert Schoenaers: "The real problem was the expansion due to temperature fluctuations. With a facade that is almost 40 meters wide, we have to take into account temperature expansions of about 40 millimeters. If all the profiles are so narrow, where should we build in these expansions? That's where Renson's experience and know-how with such projects comes in handy." 

Continue to improve

At VW dealer Toferer in Eferding, Austria, everything went well. Afterwards, the dealer did want better access to the roll tubes. These were integrated into the white frame of about 60 centimeters wide prescribed by the CI. For the next projects, the Customized Solutions department is already working on a solution.