Colourful activity on the facade

The city of Göttingen is currently renovating its town hall. The most striking and characteristic feature of the building has already been successfully restored: The colourful tiled facade from the 60s. A Fischer BWM system solution for the curtain-mounted back-ventilated facade (VHF) made it possible to fasten the building envelope in an easy-to-install and permanently secure manner.

After a five-year renovation break, the monumental Göttingen City Hall is scheduled to reopen in 2024 February. For almost 60 years, the institution has been providing the ideal stage for a wide range of events. 2,600 m2 of event space on three levels as well as a total area of almost 5,400 m2, plus 900 m2 of roof terrace area, open up plenty of space for culture and exchange. Among other things, it is the venue of the Göttinger Symphonieorchester and the International Handling Festival. One controversial topic in the 60s was the unusually designed facade, which gave the town hall the loving nickname “tiled furnace” and established itself as a unique landmark of the city over the years. 

The 50 x 50 x 3 cm ceramic tiles feature two different geometric reliefs with circles and triangles as well as five coloured glazes in dark blue, blue, red, purple and white. New tiles in dusty pink and pigeon blue remain in the colour duct of the existing tiles. The square relief of the new tiles complements the basic geometric shapes of the stock. The extensions (logistics and canopies) have been clad with the white tiles, the hall body is exclusively colourful. “The new facade connects the past and future of the building in a sustainable way,” emphasises Heiko Sasse, shareholder of the architectural office for sasse architekten BDA. “The facade, which appears to have a wide-ranging colour surface, also shows a differentiated and heterogeneous play of colours during the approach, which is further reinforced and expanded by the geometric reliefs – similar to the city as a uniform structure, but consisting of different individuals.” 

After the ZiE was successfully achieved, the facade elements were installed with the fischer BWM aluminium substructure. The facade builders implemented the spacer substructure vertically with the ATK 100 ZeLa. “The thermally optimised ZeLa holder with stainless steel blade shows its advantages here,” emphasises Steffen Bendix, who was involved in the project as a sales engineer at fischer BWM. “The ZeLa bracket thus guarantees compliance with the required heat protection requirements (U-value) with a low build-up.” The horizontal systems consisting of the ATK 103 P20 for concealed clip fastening together with P20 horizontal profiles were attached to this basic structure. fischer long shank anchors and injection anchors anchor the wall brackets of the substructure in the supporting structure. The visible elements with the retained and new tiles were securely and concealed attached to the substructure with the fish undercut anchors.

"We would like to thank the expert and appraiser Prof. Dr. Alfred Stein, whose assessment of the facade construction made an important contribution to the most suitable facade fastening," says Jochen Burbach. “This is how the system ensures that the tile facade is securely and concealed at the same time, in order to preserve the original face of the Göttingen City Hall for generations to come.”