With the “Grüne Mitte” on the Franklin site in Mannheim, a new, lively district center is being created in the heart of one of Germany’s largest urban development areas. The ensemble combines modern commercial and restaurant spaces with high-quality residential areas and an intensively greened roofscape – a central meeting place for the newly emerging district. The design by Dutch architects MVRDV in collaboration with Frankfurt architects schneider+schumacher envisages a striking building form with two structures rising above a shared underground garage and separated by a traffic-free axis. The architectural idea of the “green center” – a green, publicly accessible roof garden – not only characterizes the external appearance, but also the sustainable overall concept of the project.
Hybrid timber construction
HESS TIMBER was responsible for the planning, production, delivery and assembly of the timber construction for this project. Both cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam components from the HASSLACHER group were used.
A particular challenge of the supporting structure was the very high demands on the accuracy of the installed steel parts. State-of-the-art 3D surveying technology was used to ensure the smooth assembly of the timber structure. The complexity of the hybrid structure also required optimized interface coordination with the adjacent steel and concrete trades – from the planning stage through to assembly on the construction site.
