Falkensee School

The Vicco-von-Bülow-Gymnasium in Falkensee, which specialises in arts and crafts, has been given an ecologically designed exhibition pavilion for the artwork of its pupils. The new building, which can be used all year round, serves as a place for meeting and events and also functions as a classroom.

The school's pupils were also involved in the design and planning process. Together, they developed their own design ideas, which were then incorporated by Marlene Braun and Olin Petzold's bachelor project at the TU Berlin.

All the walls of the pavilion are made of rammed earth, while the wooden supporting structure of the roof consists of a double layer of beams and form work made of OSB boards. For roof waterproofing EPDM was chosen. The material has excellent ageing characteristics, ecologically safe and also offers the possibility of eco friendly recycling.

The new building thus largely corresponds to the cradle-to-cradle philosophy, a sustainable ecological approach that envisages a closed raw material cycle modelled on nature. Only the floor slab was made of conventional reinforced concrete for structural reasons.

The selected EPDM waterproofing HERTALAN® EASY COVER was provided by CARLISLE® as part of a sponsorship programme. The material combines the excellent material properties of EPDM synthetic rubber with optimum solutions for installation. The membranes can be delivered as a made to measure sheet for fast installation. Our special hot bonding technique (vulcanisation) can weld EPDM sheets together at our factory, this way HERTALAN® produces an EPDM flat roofing system that can virtually seal an entire roof at once.

If the roof is to be extended at a later date or if the building has to be demolished, the EPDM membrane can be removed from the retaining plates by reverse induction without causing damage and can be reused without hesitation or subsequently recycled accordingly.

Roland Fritsch