CUBE Service Center, Münster (GER)

CUBE - Creative companies bundle energy - Installing TG-THERM^®sun at the Kreativkai in Münster, Germany

CUBE, in the city harbour, is an impressive office building built in Münster in 2007. While there are almost exclusively historic buildings in the eastern part of the harbour, which have been renovated in the last 10 years, a modern new building has arisen with the CUBE office complex in the western area of the harbour. The architectural firm GOP Architects & Merchants proposed a 5-storey building with a total usable area of 2,530 m². The highlight of the cubist structure are the glass boxes that stick out of the facade over the harbour promenade.

First envisioned in 1999 by the business group GOP Architects and Merchants, it has now become experienced architecture. CUBE bundles a synergetic mix of different companies and is among other things the head office of GOP, which is responsible for the areas of architecture, project development, project management, and construction management for project realisation. The city of Münster has referred to the “Kreativkai” as an “example for successful, structural, and functional conversion of an old industrial location.”

On the borderline between old and new, the CUBE glass boxes jut out of the innovative facade and place a successful accent on the old development. The boxes offer a view to above, below, and the side, allowing air, water, and space to be experienced in a unique way.

The glass boxes consist of TG-THERM^®plus insulated glass with SGG COOL-LITE SKN 154. The panes of insulated glass, 900 kg heavy and up to approximately 4,000 x 2,700 mm large, were installed in part with mitred edges and step edges in order to provide an optimal reflective surface for the glass elements lit with LED technology. The interior 15 mm panes of TG-ESG^® which are additionally secured against impact, underwent a heat test (TG-ESG^®-H) to minimise the risk of a so-called “spontaneous break.” The exterior panes are made of coated safety glass packets whose edges are ground all the way around.

Thiele Glas supplied different insulated glass combinations for the approx. 800 m² facade, in part with TG-PROTECT^®akustik, safety glass with sound insulation film.