The Heimeran - Priorit

The HEIMERAN – an office tower in an outstanding location

The location of Heimeranplatz in the Munich city centre is outstanding. This is where one of Munich‘s most important access and exit roads, Garmischer Strasse, meets Ridlerstrasse. Beyond Ridlerstrasse in the direction of the city centre the inner Munich district of Schwanthaler Höhe begins. At this special location, which acts like a city gate and crosses one of the city‘s most important transport axes, ehret+klein developed the HEIMERAN in cooperation with KIRKBI. The design for the unusual office and commercial building comes from the architectural firm OS A Schmidhuber Architekten and has characterised the townscape at Heimeranplatz since mid-2023.

The previous development on the corner site consisted of three building sections: a square building section on Garmischer Strasse, an elongated multi-storey flat-roofed building facing Ridlerstrasse and a 9-storey high-rise building. While the building on Garmischer Strasse was included in the redesign as an existing building, the former Philips tower block and the neighbouring office building were demolished.

The new office ensemble, which was built on the site of the former Philips high-rise, consists of a 14-storey tower with a height of over 50 metres and a five-storey building block. In view of the special, outstanding location at the Heimeranplatz junction, three storeys of the tower were rotated in the awareness of its impact on the cityscape.

The rotation of the building sections not only created a striking silhouette, but also space for terraces that can be used under cover all year round. The high, glazed upper floor facing Heimeranplatz provides access to the entire ensemble. With this extraordinary architectural ensemble, there was no question that the interior design of the building also had to do justice to the concept.

Fire protection solutions

Smoke extraction:
According to building regulations, necessary corridors and stairwells must be usable for a sufficiently long time in the event of a fire. Their use must not be jeopardised by smoke. For this reason, smoke extractors play an important role in fire protection concepts. A pressurised smoke protection system was used in this building. PRIORIT PRIODOOR ETX-RDA smoke extraction dampers with a width of 980 mm and a height of 2080 mm were installed as part of the RDA system to ensure adequate smoke extraction from the escape routes in the event of a fire. The smoke extraction dampers provide a large, free and unobstructed outflow area for the fire gases. The smoke extraction dampers open automatically in the event of a fire thanks to the control of the on-site pressurised smoke protection system. In normal operation, the dampers are smoke-tight and have a fire resistance rating of over 90 minutes.

Installation shafts:

Within the building, the technical installations are routed to the individual floors through vertical shafts. To prevent the spread of fire and smoke to other floors in the event of a fire, installation shafts, including the inspection opening closures in them, must be made of non-combustible building materials and have a fire resistance that corresponds to the highest necessary fire resistance of the room-enclosing components they penetrate.
In order to ensure that the installation shafts can be inspected, taking into account the building regulations as well as the technical and visual requirements, PRIORIT AG inspection closures were installed on each floor of the office tower at Heimeranplatz. These closures not only fulfil the requirements of building regulations and the high-rise directive, but also withstand fire testing from the inside and outside.

The fire resistance of 30 minutes or 90 minutes tested on both sides also includes compliance with the temperature increase of max. 180 K required for walls, shafts and the closures of the openings on the side facing away from the fire, as well as tested smoke tightness. The PRIODOOR RTH access panels are equipped with an internal overhead door closer and can be easily opened from the inside using a lever handle.

Unobtrusive appearance – Uniform optics:
In the office tower, the smoke extraction dampers and access panels were installed on all floors in two adjacent shafts. Functionally available and yet visually unobtrusive – in line with the wishes of many architects and building owners, the surfaces of the smoke extraction dampers and inspection opening closures were provided with PRIOPAINT priming film. This meant that the products could be applied to the same surface as the walls without any problems.

The resulting uniform surface of the wall, smoke extraction flaps and inspection cover, combined with flush installation, integrate the technical products inconspicuously into the building design. An unobtrusive appearance is further emphasised by discreet stainless steel hinges and a profile half cylinder that is almost flush-mounted.

Project data
Project location:	Munich
Building:	Office Tower
Year of construction:	2016 – 2023
Product:	Smoke extraction dampers PRIODOOR ETX RDA; Inspection opening closure PRIODOOR RTH
Material:	Non-combustible panel with surface coating, classification A2 – s1, d0
Fire-resistance rating:	90 minutes
Protective target:	Keeping escape routes smoke-free; fire protection separation of installation shafts
Architect:	OS A Ochs Schmidhuber Architekten GmbH
Building owner:	ehret + klein / KIRKBI
General contractor:	Implenia AG