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Ostersiepen student halls of residence, Wuppertal
“Flexible residential use and sustainable construction were the project goals focussed on when designing the Ostersiepen student halls of residence in Wuppertal. With the expansion of the residential complex, the University of Wuppertal Social Services Office is responding to the expected increase in student numbers during the next few years. However, it remains to be seen whether this increase in demand will be sustained in the long term, which is why during the planning an emphasis was laid on permeable floor plans that will allow diverse uses.
How the judges assessed it:
“In urban design terms, the compact building volumes have been well integrated into the varied built environment. The flexible and practical floor plans enable a variety of different residential forms and make a commendable contribution in terms of adapting multi-storey apartment buildings in order to meet the social development trends in residential building. An emphasis has also been placed on restrained detailing and the use of sustainable building materials.
A passive house quality is achieved by means of a hybrid structure utilising reinforced concrete and prefabricated, timber rainscreen cladding. This provides a cost-effective construction method and at the same time offers the necessary thermal storage mass. The window surface areas are sized in direct response to the different directions. The credit for the electricity generated from a biogas-fired CHP plant is designed to balance out around 20% of the annual primary energy required by the building services equipment. A particular feature of the project’s holistic approach is its intention to balance out the overall resources used throughout the entire lifecycle.”
Building concept
As a “public sector” developer, the client was particularly committed to ensuring a sustainable development. This related not just to the energy required for operating the building; the energy generation and the overall use of resources throughout the entire lifecycle were also important.
This project is being initially planned to meet the need for more student flats. However, it is not yet clear whether the increased demand will be sustained in the long term. All the construction measures taken by the University of Wuppertal Social Services Office have therefore been designed to be usable and attractive for the normal residential market. The concept of more permeable floor plans and new kinds of living spaces is therefore being supported by the Ministry of Construction and Transport as “experimental housing” as part of its housing funding programme. Since Wuppertal still has unmet needs for publicly subsidised residential accommodation, the construction measure was planned as part of the aforementioned housing funding programme.
Energy concept
Although the traditional passive house design with air-only heating is possible in multi-storey residential construction, here it is deemed to be neither sensible nor economic. For this reason, the ventilation technology versions listed here were respectively investigated with additional radiators. However, these were sized and positioned in such a manner that operating errors are avoided. Thanks to the comfortable surface temperatures in the window areas (triple glazing), the heat surfaces can be arranged so that they can be individually adjusted in the rear parts of the rooms where they cannot be obstructed by furniture. The passive house standard was established for all versions examined. Further investigations were conducted to optimise the project even further based on the experience from previous EnOB projects. Protection against solar gain in summer is ensured by the use of directionally oriented solar control glazing.