Corrosion protection for Hamburg’s new landmark

The Elbphilharmonie Hall, Hamburg’s new landmark, has now gained a global reputation and is now being mentioned in the same breath as the Eiffel Tower or Sydney Opera House. The ZINKPOWER Group provided corrosion protection for the spectacular roof cladding.

Exceptional site, innovative architecture and outstanding acoustics come together in Hamburg's latest concert hall. The Elbphilharmonie Hall combines traditional brickwork with bold curved glass façades, achieving its unique effect in combination with the surrounding harbour landscape. The 6000 square metre roof was manufactured and installed by the Baden-based roof and façade specialist, Wittenauer GmbH. The site of the building, at the western tip of HafenCity, in the centre of the River Elbe, classifies it as corrosivity category C5.

Hot-dip galvanized steel components are effectively and sustainably protected from corrosion even in this exposed position. Wittenauer relied on ZINKPOWER Lahr’s many years of hot-dip galvanizing experience and also selected another company in the Group to provide the corrosion protection and coloured design of the giant aluminium sequins: ZINKPOWER Neumünster. “Both firms were the perfect partners for us. They responded in depth to all our questions about corrosion protection and we were able to rely 100% on their quality. Naturally the icing on the cake was the fact that they were located so close to our own production facilities and also to the site in Hamburg,“ explained Bianca Wittenauer, who helped to supervise the project from the outset, as an architect on the design team.

The unusual roof silhouette is also referred to as the “fifth façade". A total of eight concave faces tower from 78 to 102 metres to form a huge wave, with inclines of up to 57 degrees. The final visible surface of white perforated sequins makes the roof glisten like the surface of water when viewed from afar. Scarcely a single one of the 8359 aluminium sequins is similar to another. They were almost all individually designed and produced in line with the architects' specification to follow the shape of the roof. Everything was carefully considered when it came to the corrosion protection of the sequins. First of all they were pre-anodised in accordance with GSB International e.V. quality guidelines and then powder coated. A GSB-approved HWF powder paint was used to coat them in RAL 9016, which is also resistant to extreme UV radiation over a long period of time.

The ZINKPOWER Lahr and ZINKPOWER Neumünster teams galvanized, anodised and coated the individual parts over a period of five years.

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© Thies Raetzke, Michael Zapf, Oliver Heissner, Bianca Wittenauer