Unilever has moved its Headquarter for Germany, Austria and Switzerland to Hamburg’s HafenCity.
The office building fulfills the Gold Standard for sustainable buildings

The polygonal transparent curtain-wall façade can already be seen from far away. It prevents the building from unwanted solar energy. The in this way protected shading louvers can be used even with strong wind and sunshine. The curtain-wall façade consist of 224 panels.

Each single panel forms an independent unit. Basis is a rigid frame of hollow sections which is covered by a cable-supported ETFE-foil.

formTL
design, structural analysis curtain-wall façade and foil patterning

architect
Behnisch Architekten/Stuttgart

owner and general contractor
Hochtief Projektentwicklung

foil manufacturing
Vector Foiltec

photos
formtTL

published
db 12/2009
DBZ Licht+Raum 01/2010
Architektur International 2/2011

several awards
e.g. ‚Building Exchange Award 2009‘ for the best office building
BDA-Preis Hamburg 2010

ETFE foil, 250 und 300 µm

in total
6.200 m² ETFE-foil and 10 km inox-cables are installed