Mennekes, Lennestadt, Germany

Mennekes from Kirchhundem is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of plugs and connectors and charging stations for electric cars. The headquarters are continuously expanding and a recent building measure involved the building of a new office storey. Already at the start, the focus was on an energy efficient and comfortable solution for the air conditioning of the rooms which can be integrated into the building’s modern and open architecture. The extra storey comprises of a steel skeleton with an all-round glass façade. Hereby a requirement was that the steel support structure should be maintained and remain visible in the offices. As there wasn’t an installation level, all the piping should be laid visibly yet without looking too “technical”.

With aquatherm’s extensive experience in heating and cooling ceilings, a concept was developed for the air conditioning of the office storey. With a construction of suspended metal ceiling panels in which the aquatherm black system grids were incorporated, the relatively high heating and cooling loads were completely covered. In combination with the grids, the perforation and acoustic lining of the suspended metal ceiling panels created a very high degree of acoustic absorption. Furthermore, the available ceiling space could be optimally used thanks to the individual and customised manufacture of the suspended ceiling panels.

The geometry of the rooms required a very large suspended ceiling panel which could not be made as one unit. The suspended panels, therefore, had to be assembled together out of individual elements on the building site. This required the smooth cooperation between the drywall builder who fixed the panel onto the ceiling and the heating engineer who had to install the aquatherm black system grids in the cassettes just in time and, at the same time, had to install the pipe work.