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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
Key facts
| Application | Balcony Slabs |
| Product | solidian GRID Q95-CCE-38 |
| Year | 2023 |
| Location | Wangen im Allgäu |
| Dimensions |
The slabs are between 1.90 m and 3.54 m wide. They have a depth of 1.26 m to 2.17 m. Thanks to the non-metallic reinforcement from solidian, their concrete cover is just 15 mm. |
Carbonconcrete balcony slabs
Non-metallic reinforcement
Just how seriously the company takes the issues of sustainability and CO2 reduction is also evident in another area: all balcony slabs in the neighborhood are manufactured with a solidian carbon reinforcement. This has several advantages. The most important one: unlike steel, the material does not corrode! For this reason, the concrete cover, which is supposed to protect the steel in conventional construction, can be designed to be significantly smaller. This means that considerably less concrete and cement is needed, which also has a favorable effect on the CO2 balance. For the Vinzenz Areal, the construction company used solidian GRID for the upper and lower reinforcement layers of the balcony slabs. This is a mat made of carbon fibers that are impregnated with epoxy resin. In addition to the positive ecological properties mentioned above, it also has technical advantages: for example, it has a characteristic tensile strength that is several times higher than that of a classic steel reinforcement mat (up to 3,300 N/mm²).
As little concrete as possible
This was of course also of benefit to Georg Reisch GmbH & Co. KG. They manufactured the balcony slabs at their plant in Bad Saulgau and installed them on the load-bearing substructure there. The prefabricated modules made it easier and faster to install the balconies. Their plates are between 1.90 m and 3.54 m wide. They have a depth of 1.26 m to 2.17 m. Thanks to the non-metallic reinforcement from solidian, their concrete cover is just 15 mm. In the conventional reinforced concrete construction method, the plates would have been at least 18 cm thick. This reduction in the amount of concrete not only has a positive effect on the environment, but also on the appearance of the components. They look extremely delicate and aesthetic. In addition, they are resistant to external influences, such as frost and de-icing salt, and therefore require little maintenance, which saves the operator of the residential building costs in the long term. Thanks to the corrosion-free carbon reinforcement, the balcony slabs could be realized without any sealing.
