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A neighborhood for several generations and environmental protection
A neighborhood is currently being built in Wangen in southern Germany that impresses in two ways – firstly with its usage concept and secondly with its construction. The usage concept envisages cross-generational living, while the construction is consistently geared towards sustainability. To achieve this, the executing company, Georg Reisch GmbH & Co. KG, a hybrid construction method, recycled concrete and reinforcement from solidian.
The Vinzenz Quarter is being built on the site of a former nursing school and will comprise 122 residential units spread across six buildings. The special thing about it is that it is designed to bring together several generations. Accordingly, three of the buildings are geared towards the needs of older people. These properties comprise 63 apartments ranging in size from 33 to 69 m². The client is Vinzenz von Paul gGmbH. It attaches great importance to the residents of the building remaining independent for as long as possible, and therefore equips the apartments with technical aids such as fall radar or built-in cooker safety devices. The other three buildings are reserved for singles, couples and families. They can choose between apartments with one to five rooms. The apartments offer a high level of comfort, for example, they have high-quality wooden floors that are heated by underfloor heating and are equipped with wood-aluminum windows. The client for these three buildings is Georg Reisch GmbH & Co. KG. To enable all residents to meet regularly, there will be a neighborhood square equipped with play equipment for children and exercise stations suitable for senior citizens.

Construction method
The Reisch company is using its three buildings to find out which is the best way to construct sustainable housing. For this reason, all three properties, whose floor plans are identical, are being built using a hybrid construction method. In the first, the walls are made of wood and the ceilings of concrete. In the second, only the stairwell core is made of concrete, all the other components are made of wood. And the third was built entirely of wood. Only the basements of the three buildings are made of the same material: concrete. But here, too, the company places a high value on resource-efficient construction: it uses recycled material. However, it is not purchased, but reclaimed from the remains of the building that originally stood on the site.

Concrete recycling
Accordingly, a total of approx. 15,000 tons of broken concrete will be processed, which corresponds to around 650 dump trucks. This has several advantages: for example, the rock does not have to be mined in nature and the transport distances are reduced to a minimum. With the help of a complex process, new building material, known as RC grain, is produced from the old concrete. The smaller grain sizes (up to four millimeters) are used, for example, as ballast for the wooden floors of the apartments (room acoustics). The grain sizes from four to 22 millimeters are used to produce the concrete. And here, too, Reisch is acting in the interests of the environment: it uses low-clinker cement types, thus reducing CO2 emissions.

Photos: (c) Georg Reisch GmbH & Co. KG