Description
The Erco Leuchten company in Lüdenscheid required new pallet storage in addition to the two existing production plants. The building for pallet-stored goods – semi-finished products, finished products and packaging – was to be planned as a so-called “rack-supported storage system”. This means that the structure of the building is formed by the racks themselves.
The architectural design by Schneider + Schumacher supports the intrinsic characteristics of the high-rack and logistics machinery and proposes a building envelope supported by a steel structure that is clad with transparent and translucent glass panels. Therefore, the processes taking place within the building can be observed from the outside and the building’s depth and function become comprehensible.
A delivery and commissioning area following the same design principles as the high-rack storage is located in front of the pallet warehouse, resulting in a unified building that is half buried in the sloped site. Here, pallets are fed automatically from the high-rack. Individual components are manually selected from the pallets and put into boxes for automated transportation to the assembly area. The pallet-packed goods themselves are stored in the high-racks, which are also served automatically. An unsupported bridge with aluminum sandwich panel cladding forms a connection to the existing production plants. Narrow full-height glazed slits in the cladding reveal the movements of the fully automatic transport system.
The longitudinal façades of the storage building are clad with double-layered profiled glass that was custom-made for the project. The gable façades have clear glazing made of large format double-glazing panes. This cladding provides transparency which reaches as far into the building as the high-rack storage. Lighting consultant Uwe Belzner developed a lighting system for the automatic storage and retrieval conveyors to make their movements visible. Installed just behind the façade, vertical fluorescent lamps create further dramatic lighting effects.
Drawings
Site plan
Ground floor
Floor plan diagram
Cross section
Longitudinal section
South elevation
Photos
The glazed eastern façade, which provides views into the interior of the building
View of the bridge between the western façade of the high bay storage and the production plant
Originally published in: Jürgen Adam, Katharina Hausmann, Frank Jüttner, Industrial Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.