Building R, Stuttgart

This building is embedded in a slight slope, and thus affords unique views over the valley. Building R is a monolithic structure with exposed concrete exterior walls made of light-weight concrete and conventional steel-reinforced floor slabs. The addition of light coarse aggregate (expanded clay) as an artificial light-weight additive according to DIN EN 13055, the concrete acquires extremely good thermal insulation properties, thus obviating the need for any further insulation measures. Besides the load-bearing and technical sealing functions with its dense microstructure the lightweight concrete, designed as exposed concrete, also serves as a frost-proof façade.
Generous façade openings with correspondingly sized sliding components were the standard for the supportive structure and the maximum allowed deformations.