Trademark made of lightweight concrete
Bold signposts and large-format advertising panels are the mainstay products of Bulldog Reklama s.r.o., a Czech company that recently moved its head office to the Prague district of Strašnice. It was clear even prior to the beginning of construction that the new building would have to be just as eye-catching as the company’s products. At the same time, it was to have excellent thermal insulation and efficient sound insulation due to its location right next to a heavily frequented road.
The existing built environment with a very unique mixture of single-family homes, community gardens and scattered prefabricated slab buildings was yet another factor that needed to be taken into account by architects Tomáš Stránský, Martin Rezek and Vojtěch Geryk from Prague architectural firm Ateliér Sféra.
Energy efficiency
with Liapor SL
In order to implement the requirement of efficient thermal insulation in the best way possible, around 230 m3 of Liapor SL masonry blocks of size 36.5 cm and strength class 4 were used for the building envelope. The chambers of this durable hollow block produced from Liapor expanded clay are provided with a filling foamed into place off-site that is resistant to ageing, extremely stable, permeable and water-repellent. It enables the Liapor SL masonry block to achieve a U-value of 0.25 W/(m2K) at a block thickness of only 36.5 cm.
Feel-good factor
comes as standard
The two-story cuboid building, which has a volume of approx. 1,270 m³, was raised effortlessly using the Liapor SL and Liapor M masonry blocks and additional Liapor window and door lintels. In addition to impressive values in energy efficiency and sound insulation, the new building scores top marks also with an exceptionally pleasant, always well-balanced indoor climate offering a high feel-good factor.
The building envelope consisting of Liapor masonry blocks forms the base for the tricolor slab cladding which entirely covers the upper part of the building. The color scheme and texture of the cladding are deliberately reminiscent of a pixelated image. In this way, the company’s new head office calls attention to itself in the inhomogeneous surroundings just as the company’s signposts and advertising panels do. At the same time, the head office building is an example of how Liapor masonry blocks can be used to quite effortlessly translate the high standards applied in housing construction to industrial and commercial construction, and to realize individual, appealing brand architecture providing an optimum indoor climate and maximum user convenience.
