Cargo Center Messe Frankfurt
Freight Forwarding and Logistics Building, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The Cargo Center is located in the extension area of the Frankfurt exhibition grounds and serves as the central goods receiving and distribution department on the exhibitions grounds. The objective was to establish a new Cargo Center on minimal space in order to keep the rentable outside area at a maximum, for open-air events and/or as extension space for the planned exhibition halls. Therefore, the Cargo Center has been positioned as closely to the railway embankment in the East as possible.
The Cargo Center fits into the large scale of the majority of the Frankfurt exhibition buildings. The facade design clearly indicates the use of the building. Also the orientation and shape of the building achieve this purpose. The representative side of the hall is orientated towards the open space. Its striking gates and a “container” facade demarcate it as a cargo hall.
The office building on the Eastern edge of the hall is designed as a 4-storey building bridging the lorry access platform on a lower level enabling the lorries to be loaded and unloaded at ground level. This shortens the ways and reduces the need for shunting and unloading spaces. The unloaded goods are temporarily stored in the Cargo Center and brought with forklifts to their designated location on the premises.
The hall is divided into a central receiving and picking area as well as two flexible warehouse areas, which allow open storage and shelves up to 7.5m high. The entire hall is accessible for forklifts and trucks.
The shell of the Cargo Center consists of a prefabricated construction made of timber and concrete. This has proven to be very economical and resource-conserving for this type of building. An advantage of the high grade of prefabricated parts is the short and weather-independent shell construction period of only three months.
High concrete fork supports are spun in and bear the timber roof construction, which consists of 2m high structural composite lumber with a span of 21m layered with 10m long timber purlins. The roof (made of trapezoidal sheet metal) will get an extensive green covering.
The hall is gird by a 1m high, prefabricated skirting made of concrete, which serves simultaneously as protection against collisions and shunting as well as frost protection. A robust plate made of reinforced concrete forms the base for the storage of heavy goods. The shell of the office tract consists of prefabricated concrete elements with filigree ceilings.
The hall consists of a highly insulated modular facade system, which plays with two different tread widths. The 30cm wide sheet panels in Grey-White (standard RAL shade) are combined with 20cm wide elements in seven other colour shades. The friendly shades in Grey and Red give the facade a light-weight impression, which harmoniously blends in with the existing surrounding. The slim facade treads in different colours are distributed over three horizontal stripes positioned on top of each other, which fosters the association of stapled containers. On the gable ends of the hall there are large window panes, which not only allow trade fair visitors views into the logistic hall but also fill it with daylight. The facades on the longitudinal sides are characterised by large gates with coloured frames. The facade of the office building consists of a smoothly polished, dark, heat-insulating bonded system with prominent window openings.
