Solar home kitchen with textile-reinforced concrete countertop
The architecture firm Fickenscher Architektur+ used a 3D textile reinforcement from V. Fraas Solutions in Textile for the first time in a concrete countertop. In the newbuild of a solar home in the Upper Franconian city of Hof in Germany, the textile-reinforced concrete countertop with a length of 3.10 m, a width of 65 cm and an (optical) thickness of 7 cm was set up. The countertop itself weighs approx. 150 kg and has a thickness of only 3 cm.
Solar homes are buildings that derive the largest portion of the energy required for heating and hot water from solar energy, i.e. at no cost. A solar home concept includes consideration of environmentally compatible principles, such as the use of natural or nature-oriented building materials. Architect and energy consultant Uwe Fickenscher decided to use a concrete countertop for a kitchen reinforced with 3D textile fabric from V. Fraas Solutions in Textile GmbH. The innovative lightweight, flexible and yet high-strength textile reinforcement increases the possibilities of precast production.
Black-colored concrete
Jörg Sander, located in the German city of Selb, who has already made a name for himself as interior designer of objects, furniture and countertops for kitchens made of concrete, rose to the challenges involved in processing the new material by first conducting tests with the 3D textile reinforcement from V. Fraas Solutions in Textile. Technical questions related, for example, to cutting and assembling, spacing, and the inclination of the buoyancy of textile fabric in flowing concrete etc. could in this manner be solved. In the end, the countertop of black-colored concrete, based on Dyckerhoff Flowstone Greyline, could be produced in his workshop and set up in the solar house.
