Precast concrete construction makes it possible – fast building success in Tuttlingen

A large residential and commercial building, completed a few months ago, now stands on the Aesculap-Platz in Tuttlingen, Germany. For the floors and walls, the builder had chosen precast elements from Egon Elsässer Bauindustrie GmbH & Co. KG.

Anyone who passes the Aesculap-Platz central traffic circle in Tuttlingen will see from the Theodor-Heuss-Allee exit a conspicuously large building. The five-story façade curves to follow the course of the main street and ends in free-standing sloping walls. At the rear of the building toward the small Weimar Street, the building becomes more open. Terraces and balconies look onto a large court with parking places.

The mixed residential and commercial building stands on a 11,000 m² plot. The ground floor accommodates  around 4,250 m² of retail floor space. Tenants are the full-service grocers Rewe (around 2,300 m²) and the discount supermarket Aldi Süd (around 1,950 m²). The four upper floors accommodate a total of 70 apartments on around 4,650 m²: one-, two- and three-room rental apartments, furnished business apartments and micro-apartments for flat-sharing tenants. Apart from the generously dimensioned exterior parking lots, an underground garage is also available.

The project was erected within 14 months. Construction, with a groundbreaking ceremony and laying of the foundation stone, took place in February 2020. In April 2021, the retailers occupied their space, and the apartments were also ready for tenants to move in a short time after that. The builder was Schoofs Immobilien GmbH Frankfurt. The hybrid center had already been sold to the Greenman Open investment fund, which specializes in the food retail trade.

Good experience with precast concrete construction

The building was executed in precast concrete construction. The builder had already gained good experience with this construction method. The deciding factor had been the time savings that can be realized at the construction site. The great mass of construction elements provides good sound insulation. The builder of the unfinished structures commissioned Egon Elsässer Bauindustrie GmbH Co. KG with the manufacture and delivery of the precast elements. The company delivered a total of 7,926 m² of double walls and 7,056 m² of floor slab elements.Visualization of the arching of the external walls by means of straight elements posed a special challenge to the designers. The elliptic shape of the structure and the trapezoidal plans of the apartments called for floor elements with large spans of between seven and eight meters. The wall and floor elements were precision-manufactured for perfect fit, to reduce work at the construction site.

The demand is huge for centrally located and affordable living space in Tuttlingen, located in the administrative district of the same name in the south of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The population grows continuously. The small town owes the influx as well as its reputation as “World capital of medical technology” to the more than 400 resident companies specialized in that sector.