Issue 2/2009
03/02/09
An elevator as the architectonic center
Pole Nord – Swabian technology in Luxembourg
It is not often that an elevator is a major stylistic device in an architectural design . Building owner Claude Konrath, together with the design offi ce – Dagli+ Atelier c’architecture s.à.r.l. – turned a panorama lift into exactly that kind of eye-catcher.
Category: Issue 2/2009
Posted by: Editor
The Pole Nord office building is located in downtown Luxembourg, at the intersection of three major urban axes – Avenue de la Liberte, Avenue Marie Therese and Boulevard F. D. Roosevelt. The enclosed volume of the building is 4600 m2.
Both the extremely prominent setting for the project and historical aspects called for a very sensitive approach.
The idea behind the design is based on the name of the building that once stood on this site. The Pole Nord concept can be discerned throughout the building: the façade with its embedded blocks of ice, the shapes of the supports for the panorama lift, washrooms, interior fittings and the entryway.
The design harmonizes with the heights of neighbouring buildings and integrates itself into the existing streetscape. The flexible structure in the office stories enables a high degree of reversibility. Communication and interaction are encouraged by way of open zones, used in common, in the core area. The façade on the south side of the building is a major component in the ecological concept. The space between the façade and the building is continuously ventilated through openings, enhancing the comfort of those using the building.
The current tenant is the Banque Invik S.A, a bank founded in Luxembourg in the year 1989 by Jan Hugo Stenbeck.
An independent, middle-market elevator manufacturer located in Luxembourg, the Beil Company won the contract for elevator planning and project development.
That firm was founded in 1976 by Louis Beil-Laschette after he had worked for several years as an elevator installer in Luxembourg, contracting his services to a variety of German manufacturers. Over the course of the years the firm’s manufacturing depth has extended again and again so that it can respond to all the desires of its demanding clientele. In 1996 the company’s founder passed the reins to his son, Claude Beil. It was at this time that the company was reorganized as BEIL s.à.r.l.
Under Claude Beil’s leadership the enterprise has advanced to become one of the major elevator manufacturers in the demanding Luxembourgian market. Today the lifts made by Beil occupy a class of their own in regard to quality, functionality and esthetics.
The manufacturer plans and conducts project work in its own offices. The cars, the steel structures and the controls are fabricated in the company’s shops. Beil has specialized in matching elevators to individual wishes and to the situation prevailing on site. The panorama lift in Pole Nord is certainly an impressive reference installation for the company.
The hoistway is far larger than necessary, this for reasons of visual effect. One specification was that the hoistway glazing and the glass inside the car be absolutely flush. Stainless steel strips were used for this purpose. High-strength, triple -laminated glass was installed in many places. Four laminated layers were used in the car, resulting in panes 32 mm thick. The call buttons were recessed directly into the frames for the hoistway doors, without using a cover panel.
The elevator stops at seven landings and has a net payload of 630 kg. The fully glazed car weighs 2000 kg. The hoistway’s footprint at the bottom landing is far smaller than in upper floors, letting users peer up into the hoistway. This is why the very compact counterweight (290 x 340 mm) had to be fitting with integrated safeties.
Additional specifications were intended to emphasize the smoothness of the surface and the walls’ transparency. Thus no mounts for the hoistway glazing were to be visible outside the hoistway. The fully glazed and framed hoistway doors are attached only at the bottom; there is no additional mounting for the headers. The side sections of the hoistway door frames are very slender (just 50 mm wide). Visible are the guide rails, the car and the counterweight. The rails, manufactured from stainless steel, are secured only at the top and bottom ends. The car’s frame is flush with the glazing, both inside and outside.
An illuminated glass floor rounds out the image presented by the car.
A large portion of the components for this highly attractive and appealing installation was delivered by the LiftEquip Company. This firm, founded by Hans Köppen in 1981, sells elevator components to medium-sized and larger companies around the world. All the items are examined in assembled elevators to insure perfect interplay with other items. They have to prove themselves under extreme conditions. LiftEquip delivered the model TW 130 machinery for the panorama lift in Pole Nord.
The motor can be mounted either horizontally or vertically and the VVVF controls make for exact regulation. The TW 130 runs very quietly. An emergency braking system is an available option. The wear-resistant drive sheave can be matched ideally to the lift parameters (rope can feed out horizontally or vertically).
The speed governor supplied by LiftEquip is a type-tested safety component as per EN 81. It may be installed either in the machinery room or at the head of the hoistway where no machine room is provided. It can be delivered in the standard design with a governor wheel diameter of 300 mm or as a compact, shallow design especially for use in MRL elevators, with a 200 mm governor wheel.
The Comfort line of sliding doors made by LiftEquip offers high conveyance performance (VVVF drive, including the inverter), extremely quiet operation (specially designed rails and rollers), great reliability , and superb matching to other components (options for a primed surface, type 220 stainless steel alloy, textured stainless steel, framed glass, frameless glass etc.).
For the installation in Pole Nord the hoistway and car doors were delivered with a frame all around the edges.
LiftEquip GmbH Elevator Components, 73765 Neuhausen
2/2009
