The old building presented us with some challenges. There were no riser shafts, the load-bearing capacity of the ceilings was too low so that the mono-blocks could not be hanged onto the ceiling. Besides, the statics of the floor were not sufficient: the load-bearing capacity was only 250 kg/m2 (normal capacity is about 1000 kg/m2). The capsule machine alone already weighs 1000 kg/m2.

In addition, bringing in the components was a challenge because the doors were small and there was no goods lift.

Due to the circumstances at hand, we decided on a room-in-a-room layout. In this way, the cleanrooms were detached from the outer façade. In this way, we created a controllable intermediate zone that could be used as a technical zone. This meant that we hardly had to touch the outer façade, but could use it to support the weight of the technical components. The windows could still be opened and the existing heating could be used.

In addition, we decided to use recirculation. Each zone with a product or a processing step was equipped with its own recirculation unit. These zones are supplied with air from a central fresh air system (attic). This allowed us to use an existing cabinet niche as a riser zone and smaller air outlets were thus created on the roof in keeping with the preservation of historical monuments. In addition, we were able to save approx. 75% energy due to the greatly reduced heating, cooling, humidification and dehumidification requirements of the system.