Bernapark extension, Deisswil

The project
In Deisswil near Bern, more than 250 employees once produced cardboard for the whole of Switzerland before those responsible shut down the machines in 2010. Today, a new quarter is being built with 173 apartments for around 300 residents and 25,000m² of office and commercial space. The venerable factory buildings are still of good quality. They were therefore not demolished, but refurbished and converted, as well as extended by two floors with a wooden extension. Thus, a new diverse quarter was created.

The construction
The listed factory buildings consist largely of reinforced concrete structures with large window fronts. For the extension, wood was used almost exclusively: all walls and floor slabs are made of prefabricated wooden elements.

The challenge
The extension has always had to adapt to the winding factory buildings. Consequently, transferring the acting forces is not entirely trivial. The structural engineers defined points where the forces of the addition were allowed to be introduced. Different load-bearing directions of the floor elements with sometimes large spans were the result. Stuberholz called in Timbatec for the development of the demanding structural analysis concept and for quality assurance.

For more information, visit www.bernapark.ch.