The 170 m Taunus Tower in Frankfurt's banking district. (Photo: © Kaiserkarree S.á.r.l.)
August 2017
Grama Blend GmbH has designed the lifts and their surrounding features with BlendStone natural stone elements in two architecturally-striking skyscrapers.
As an architecturally outstanding building, the Taunus Tower, completed in 2015, 170 m high, is a highlight of the Frankfurt banking district skyline. The sober elegance of the design continues consistently in the interior in accordance with the expectations of the building owners.
In line with the special character of the interior architectural requirements and goals, its structural implementation could only be achieved with hybrid natural stone solutions. Apart from the strikingly low weight of Grama Blend GmbH’s made-to-measure BlendStone elements, additional technical subtleties were decisive for their use in the Taunus Towner. This was also the case with the lifts, which were realised by the Frankfurt company Schindler.
It was possible to continue the high quality natural stone style of the two first floor levels in the lift cars too by fitting them with the same kind of BlendStone natural stone surface. The straightforward handicraft mounting of the BlendStone elements proved their value, which was achieved without any problems by means of standard attachments methods and fittings.
During the interior finishing of the 118 m Upper West Tower ensemble at the beginning of Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm, the accentuated use of high-quality Grama Blend hybrid natural stone elements permitted the realisation of solutions that were aesthetically attractive, weight-optimised and easy to alter.
In a manner similar to Frankfurt’s Taunus Tower, particular functional as well as interior design requirements and goals could also only be achieved with hybrid natural stone solutions in this outstanding Berlin building.
In addition, a new kind of attachment system on a magnetic basis was used, whose intelligent mounting concept opens up a maximum in variability and room for alteration. The system called ReVisionSys complements the tailor-made BlendStone natural stone elements of Grama Blend, as a result of which each planned future alteration can be carried out without damage, fast and cheaply.
In the 33-flower tower, like the seven-floor block of Upper West designed by Strabag Real Estate, nine lifts were installed by Kone Aufzugsbau, whose entrance portals are bordered by natural stone - Nero Assoluto in the tower, Nero Marquina in the block. Grama Blend had to produce and harmoniously fit a total of 108 backlit lift displays with an authentic natural stone surface and integrated loudspeaker technology matching this.
Due to the low structural height and damage-free accessibility required for the technical installations, realisation of the requirements was only possible with tailor-made hybrid natural stone elements. Originally, these were to be mounted with Z-profiles. However, since the suspension clearance dimension of 10 mm required for this was undershot by a low suspended ceiling, the innovative ReVisionSys magnetic holder system came into its own for the first time here.
For Grama Blend GmbH, located in Sulzbach-Rosenberg (Germany), the Frankfurt Taunus Tower, like the Upper West high-rise building in Berlin, are among the exclusive projects where the company was able to demonstrate its know-how in hybrid natural stone materials to a special extent, acquired over 25 years.
Apart from the standard tailor-made Grama Blend elements and solutions in the interior and lift sector, the fascinating natural stone surface loudspeaker system BlendStone Audio was brought to bear in the Taunus Tower. Together with the translucent BlendStone Lumo elements, these invisible audio surface installations are some of the innovative hybrid natural stone developments of recent years of Grama Blend.
Digitalpaper
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