German Alpine Club: Lowtech highly intelligent

The architecture firm Element A transformed the former Langenscheidt publishing building in the north of Munich into a consistently sustainable quarter for the German Alpine Association: it not only surprises with a timber construction that has been presented and extended, but also has a clever ventilation concept that cools passively.

In Munich’s Parkstadt Schwabing district, there was an old publishing building with aluminum strip facades in the immediate vicinity of the Petuelring urban freeway and the A9. In the early 1970s and 1980s, Kurt Ackermann und Partner planned the headquarters of the Langenscheidt publishing house there in two construction phases with an underground parking garage and four office floors. Directly adjacent to the west is a more recent extension to the publishing house, which has been home to the CSU party headquarters since 2015.
The German Alpine Association (DAV) has now taken on the commendable task of revitalizing the 1970s building to house its new national headquarters. As the owner and user, the DAV wanted to send out a clear signal and therefore decided to preserve the existing building instead of demolishing it and building a new one, which would consume resources. “That was the brief for the invited competition,” explains project manager Christian Taufenbach from Element A, which was ultimately awarded the contract in June 2018. “Because mountaineering, climbing and running huts is only part of what the Alpine Club does. It is also the largest nature conservation association in Germany, so the key words for the new national office were clear and quickly set: resource-conserving, creative, sustainable, simple. That’s why the gray energy of the concrete skeleton building was not to be demolished, but preserved.”
But this resulted in an almost impossible conversion, explains Christian Taufenbach. “The parapets were too high and the ceilings too low for today’s multi-space concept. In addition, the foundations were too weak to add a solid storey.”

You wouldn’t know that this building is the oldest house in Parkstadt Schwabing. “From the outside, you can’t tell that the concrete core of the old building has been almost completely preserved,” says Christian Taufenbach happily. “We literally rebuilt the old building: we added two storeys of solid timber construction and put an atrium in front of it. Some of the columns were reinforced and the foundations in the basement were strengthened.”
The design planning by Element A consistently implemented the DAV’s desire for sustainability and a responsible approach to the environment. Wood, glass and greenery are therefore characteristic of the new building envelope, which clearly stands out from the surrounding buildings with their monumental steel and glass office towers such as the “Skyline Tower” or “Highlight Towers” next door : The existing building was given a new timber mullion and transom façade. Only the screw channels and cover strips are made of aluminium for reasons of sustainability, emphasizes Christian Taufenbach.
On the west and east sides, a wooden structure around 1.5 metres deep was built over five storeys. The planter boxes there are now well greened. “The landscape architects were inspired by the flora of the Alpine world,” explains Christian Taufenbach. “Mountain pines, rock pears, clematis and clematis grow in them.” In addition to the greenery, the wooden scaffolding also provides shade. “The large window fronts manage without external sun protection in many areas,” he explains. “Extensive simulations were carried out to investigate the shading caused by the surrounding buildings and the greenery.” The two additional storeys in timber construction not only reduce the additional load on the existing structure, but also the gray energy. “The construction itself binds greenhouse gases in the long term – right up to the F30 cladding of the heavy steel girders of the new upper floors.”
The sustainability concept thus extends as a design concept right up to the top floor. The DAV has even placed beehives on the new flat roof next to the cafeteria. To the north, Element A extended the building to include an atrium with an open staircase across all floors. On the first floor, the office added a conference room as a kind of pavilion in the garden area on the west side of the building. “Inside the building, we were careful to preserve the old building fabric and make it visible,” explains Christian Taufenbach. The unity of old and new is particularly evident in the atrium. There, the old concrete edge of the building and the connection to the new glass and wood shell are clearly visible.

The climate concept of the new DAV federal office is also particularly innovative and resource-saving, as an energy-efficient approach with reduced technology was required from the outset. The system now developed jointly by the architects and TranssolarKlimaEnginieering is an intelligent low-tech solution: the highlight is a natural ventilation system – without any conventional air conditioning. The ventilation element is a new solution in the parapet structure that ensures freshness without draughts and acoustic comfort. It has been installed in all office areas. In this project, the element, which is usually mounted above the window, is installed close to the floor in the façade. “It activates the substance, excludes noise from outside and creates an excellent working atmosphere,” emphasizes Christian Taufenbach.
The ventilation element relies on the fundamentals of physics: the air comes in from outside, falls downwards and is drawn upwards again by thermal buoyancy via the convector shaft. Two central air shafts organize the air flow and also the night-time cooling in summer. “This meant that mechanical air conditioning of the building could be completely eliminated without any loss of thermal comfort: an energy saving from the originally calculated 520 kilowatts to zero,” says Christian Taufenbach enthusiastically.
The DAV’s national headquarters is thus a contemporary and consistently sustainable office building that does not deny the existing building. “Buildings like this are everywhere,” emphasizes Christian Taufenbach. “Our renovation shows that they don’t have to be torn down, but can be reused in outstanding quality.”

The national office of the German Alpine Club has been nominated for the German Sustainability Award 2023 in the Architecture category. Find out what the winning project is here.