New building with "meeting pod"
A round-shaped room solution
Construction of the new production and warehouse hall at GeFo Gewölbe- und Formteiltechnik GmbH in Kempenich, Rhineland-Palatinate, took five months. The dry interior fit-out alone took three and a half months. The main focus was on the two-storey administrative area integrated into the building. The partition walls towards the storage and production areas were built to be comparatively slim while ensuring a high level of sound and thermal insulation. A free-standing "meeting egg" with three-dimensional curved surfaces is the design highlight. The interior fit-out was handled by IBB Immo Bau Bonn GmbH, whose outstanding performance was recognised with a nomination at the 12th Rigips Trophy in the drywall construction category.
The construction of the new production and warehouse hall in Kempenich, Rhineland-Palatinate, including a two-storey administrative area, took five months. The dry interior fit-out alone took three and a half months. Photos: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
"Rounded is the way to go" is the motto of GeFo Gewölbe- und Formteiltechnik GmbH. The company specialises in producing curved and complex gypsum components for walls and vaulted ceilings. So it's no surprise that the company placed particular value on rounded shapes in the interior design of its new building. The greatest challenge for IBB Immo Bau Bonn GmbH, who were responsible for the complete interior finishing on the first floor of the two-storey administrative wing, was constructing a “meeting egg” that was both highly functional and visually impressive.
Rounded corners as a design feature
The upper floor is a traditional social area comprising changing rooms, showers and toilets, while the ground floor is reserved for offices, meeting rooms and exhibition spaces. Virtually every corner here is rounded. The fit-out team created all wall and ceiling transitions with a cove radius of 200 mm, as well as the vertical internal and external corners. The entire ceiling is an acoustic perforated design with Rigitone Activ’Air 10/23 R and white fleece, which ensures excellent room acoustics and short reverberation times. The architecture is industrial and understated with a grey floor and white finish, allowing the shape language of the surfaces to take centre stage—the perfect “stage” for the egg-shaped fit-out highlight.
The fit-out team's biggest challenge was the "meeting egg", which had to be both functional and visually impressive. It had a three-dimensional curved surface of about 70 m², two built-in windows and a block frame entrance door. Photos: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
Free-standing “meeting egg” as a functional eye-catcher
With its three-dimensional curved surface spanning around 70 m², two built-in windows and a block-frame entrance door, the "meeting egg" is a real eye-catcher. A four-centimetre shadow gap running around the exterior creates the impression that it is free-standing. "It took three installers twelve working days in total to assemble it, treat the surfaces and build the internal acoustic ceiling", explains Alexander Moll, project manager at IBB Immo Bau Bonn GmbH. The entire substructure comprises CNC-milled, vertically standing bulkheads and horizontal ribs, each of which is clad inside and out with 12.5 mm-thick Rigidur H gypsum fibre boards. In total, 56 elements were glued together on site with Rigidur joint adhesive and screwed to an internal milled flat steel ring made of 5 mm steel at 40 cm intervals along the horizontal equator line. These steel rings are then screwed onto two massive square tubes, which simultaneously form the door opening for the block frame and hold the bottom half of the "egg" together like a belt.
The entire visible surfaces, both inside and out, add up to about 120 m² and were completely filled and smoothed to Q4 standard. Photo: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
The lower elements were aligned to the same height using a milled template set on the raw floor. They were then glued together using Rigidur joint adhesive and screwed into place. "Since the lower elements are embedded 16 cm deep in the screed, which rests on these elements, the lower two sections were completely filled with bound fill during cladding. This results in a 100% compression-resistant substrate after hardening. The remaining cavities of the substructure were filled with ISOVER Akustik TP1 partition slabs to provide optimal sound insulation,” says Alexander Moll. To fasten the upper elements, the fit-out team mounted an appropriate ceiling template to the concrete ceiling along the two central axes. The elements were then glued and screwed to this template.
A four-centimetre-wide shadow gap running around the egg creates a free-standing effect. The ceiling surfaces throughout the ground floor are designed as acoustic perforated ceilings with Rigitone Activ’Air 10/23 R and white fleece, ensuring excellent room acoustics and short reverberation times. Photo: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
Step by step to the perfect surface
The entire visible surfaces, both inside and out, totaling about 120 m², were completely filled and finished to Q4 quality. “Due to the geometry, it was not possible to use standard tools for filling, so the installers, who spent around 50 hours just on surface finishing, made their own tools by cutting them from various plastic lids.”
Proper lighting of the surface during subsequent sanding with 220 grit presented a particular challenge, Alexander Moll continues. "Due to the curved surfaces, different shadows appeared from every angle. If the standard method of using floodlights was not sufficient, the team relied especially on their sense of touch to finish the surfaces piece by piece and get closer and closer to the perfect surface."
Two horizontally positioned windows, installed based on a particularly ingenious idea, make it possible to always see out from inside the egg within the building. They are arranged so that meeting participants can look out—while seated and depending on their position—either through the large entrance door to the office behind the egg or through the large windows in the room on the other side. Photos: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
A duct air conditioning unit was installed by the drywall professionals in the ceiling cavity inside the egg; via a curved ventilation duct in the floor plan made of Rigidur gypsum fibre boards, cold and fresh air drawn in from outside is blown into the room through the surrounding shadow gap of the acoustic perforated ceiling. The exhaust air is regulated via a special door or its door leaf, which is equipped with an internal ventilation system that meets sound insulation class 2 (Rw,P 37 dB), making it ideal for use in meeting rooms. The air permeability is 98 cubic meters per hour, ensuring continuous exhaust air flow.
Depending on the position in the "egg", the acoustic perception changes. The reverberation and the resulting feedback peaks produced by the hard sound-reflecting surface create a unique, intentionally cave-like quality. However, when the participants are seated at the precisely positioned and shaped conference table, nothing stands in the way of a successful meeting. The built-in perforated ceiling made of Rigitone Activ’Air 10/23 R and a sound-absorbing carpet ensure excellent speech intelligibility. Photo: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
Horizontally positioned windows for an unobstructed view outside
The two horizontally positioned windows, ingeniously installed in the "meeting egg", provide an outside view from within the closed room. Depending on their position, meeting participants can look out either through the wide entrance door of the office behind the egg or through the large windows of the room on the other side. Delicate lights, perfectly integrated into the gypsum board surfaces, skilfully accentuate and illuminate the entire structure. The lighting concept ensures that lamps are distributed both inside and around the "egg" to guarantee attractive, even illumination of the surfaces.
In the ceiling cavity, the drywall professionals installed a duct air conditioning unit, which, via a curved ventilation duct made of Rigidur gypsum fiber boards, blows cold and fresh air drawn in from outside into the room through the surrounding shadow gap of the acoustic perforated ceiling. The exhaust air is regulated by a special door or its door leaf, which is fitted with internal ventilation that meets sound insulation class 2 (Rw,P 37 dB), making it ideal for use in meeting rooms. Photo: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
The room acoustics inside the "egg" also create an extraordinary effect. "When you walk through the room, your acoustic perception changes depending on your position. The reverberation caused by the hard, sound-reflecting surfaces and associated feedback create a unique, cave-like quality. However, once you take a seat at the precisely positioned and shaped conference table, nothing stands in the way of a successful meeting. The perforated Rigitone Activ’Air 10/23 R ceiling and sound-absorbing carpet ensure excellent speech intelligibility."
The entire substructure is comprised of CNC-milled vertically standing bulkheads and horizontal ribs, clad inside and out with 12.5 mm thick Rigidur H gypsum fibre boards. Photo left: IBB-Immo Bau Bonn GmbH
Overview plan: The “meeting egg” in the floor plan from different angles Plan: Dominik Heinz Jörg, Remagen / IBB-Immo Bau Bonn GmbH
The main task in the rest of the new company building was to construct slim partition walls between the warehouse, production hall and administration area. According to the specifications, the drywall professionals built all the walls as double-stud walls, 255 mm thick, with a vapour-retardant layer on the warm side. The two-storey prefabricated cubes in the production area were constructed using a timber frame, braced with Rigidur H on the ground floor and fully studded above. The IBB team erected the partition wall between the storeroom and the foreman’s office using robust Rigips Habito drywall boards, which are designed for fixing heavy loads. This created an ideal basis for installing floor-to-ceiling shelving units in the storeroom later on.
View from outside into the extraordinary meeting room. Photo: Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
Project details:
Client: Gewölbe- und Formteiltechnik GmbH, Kempenich
Planning: Dominik Heinz Jörg, Remagen
Fit-out company: IBB Immo Bau Bonn GmbH, Bonn
Rigips Regional Manager: Michael Witkowski, Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH
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