Birgit Scheffler
Airbus Industries Hamburg – production locations at the Elbe. RWTH Aachen (Germany)
Task definition
At the entrance to Hamburg harbour, Airbus Industries are about to create, through land reclamation, a new production centre for the A380 jumbo jet. The dimensions of the new harbour shoreline (whose contours have been obtained and fixed through compulsory acquisition) and the production halls, to be built in stages, are destined to change the landscape of the Elbe near the Mühlenberger Loch. The objective of this project and the opportunity that it represents are to demonstrate how the necessity of large halls on the new production premises can be translated into an architectural attraction and a municipal landmark, comprising an important gateway to the city. The aircraft halls will thus be the symbols of Hamburg as a centre of industry.
Urban development concept
During the first stage of construction, all of the halls comprising a complete production stage will take shape as a horizontal whole “in the front row” along the Elbe shoreline. To increase the power of the whole, the visitor centre for this new Airbus location is placed offshore, where it constitutes a landmark visible from afar.
The architectural shape of the hall structures is derived both aesthetically and in scale from the container-bridges which characterise Hamburg’s harbour and waterfront.
Flexibility
The decision to opt for a uniform treatment of all hall types, i.e. interior furnishing, assembly and painting halls all with truss-less gateways and the over 400-m long production line for fuselage assembly, provides this production centre with a future-oriented and modifiable hall structure.
One consequence of this concept is that the rear wall offers the only possible support for the ceiling load. The symmetrical placement of the halls, with the rear of each facing the logistics zone, results in a self-relieving load-bearing system.
Load-bearing system
In the central zone there are two H-struts each with two double-guyed trusses spanning a distance of 100 metres. The primary construction is aligned at 33-metre intervals and combined into a rigid system via lengthwise and transverse wind bracing in which the loads are dispersed.
The individual support structures are designed to fulfil their specific tasks, and their appearance betrays their function: the trusses indicate flexural stress, while the compression members are steel bars. All tension elements are designed as cables. The logic behind the load-bearing structure is visible even at a distance, thereby comprising an important element of the design.
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