Art Depot Fröhlich, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany

The new additions at the Stiftung Froehlich add two Depots and a larger meeting room. The Depots had to meet conservation requirements, as it houses the high-quality contemporary art objects from the Froehlich Collection.

The compact building has a highly insulated façade. The Depot area is designed without transparent components to insure lowest possible heat loss. The façade of the conference room is designed with triple-pane solar control glazing on three sides, allowing adequate daylight. On the east façade, a movable sunshade and the overhang of the roof keep out the sun and excessive heat input in summer. The solar loads are balanced in such a way that the room has very good daylight availability and summer heat insulation can be guaranteed.

Mechanical ventilation provides ventilation and conditioning of the space. The amount of fresh air supplied depends on the CO2 content in the rooms. Depending on requirements, the ventilation system combines fresh air and a certain amount of recirculated air, which ensures a low heating or cooling requirement. The conference room is supplied by a dedicated room air system with highly efficient heat recovery.

Heating and cooling is provided by a geothermal system with 11 geothermal probes that reach 99 m / 325 ft deep into the ground at a distance of at least six meters / 20 ft from each other. A reversible heat pump with a heat output of 50 kW pumps heat or cold from the ground as required. The silent system requires no fossil energy and is emission-free.

The electricity required by the heat pump and the building operation is supplied by a photovoltaic system on the roof. Its modules are positioned in an east-west orientation to generate electricity as efficiently and evenly as possible throughout the day. At night and when there is not enough sunshine, the electricity is drawn from the public grid. At peak times, the photovoltaic system feeds surplus electricity into the grid. It is dimensioned to be expected that the amount of electricity fed in will be at least as high as the amount drawn, making the building CO2-neutral in the annual balance.