The company V. Fraas Solutions in Textile has developed an innovation for the textile reinforcement of concrete wall panels and has integrated this into the architectural building facades from Hering Bau. The textile-reinforced wall panels betoShell® BIG from Hering Bau with integrated SITgrid® by V. Fraas have been used for the first time on the facade of a new building at the Technical University in Dresden. 530 facade elements in sizes up to 1.30 x 2.00 m and with a thickness of only 3 cm. were mounted yielding a 1,070 square meter facade.

It was intended for the new construction of the institute building of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Dresden to reflect the function of the building in its exterior design. An especially innovative construction material was chosen for the design of the facade as the building will house the Institute for Building Materials Research. For this purpose the architectural firm Horst Schubert in Dresden planned a white-colored, suspended, 3-D textile reinforced concrete facade with acidified surface betoShell® BIG-elements with integrated SITgrid® thereby making this construction into a pilot project for this innovative architectural concrete. betoShell BIG® with integrated SITgrid® has been approved by the German Institute for Building Technology for general construction purposes.


   


The unique feature of this new facade system is the reinforcement in the form of a 3-D textile. It consists of two layers of fabric 10 mm apart, that are connected by so-called pile threads in a pressure-resistant manner. In conjunction with materials such as concrete or plastic, 3-D textiles stand out with their enormous load capacity and extremely low weight. The company V. Fraas Solutions in Textile has succeeded in developing a production line, with which for the first time such 3-D textile reinforcements can be manufactured in large dimensions. This has made it possible to produce thin and light concrete facade panels in large sizes of up to 1.20 x 2.40 meters. In comparison, a reinforced steel wall plate of comparable size would have to be at least 80 mm thick due to the need for corrosion prevention.

There are numerous advantages to a thinner and lighter wall construction with textile reinforced concrete elements. On the one hand, greater insulation can be used without increasing the thickness of the entire outer wall of the building. Less overall outer wall thickness allows for more space for interior rooms. The lower weight of the thinner concrete slabs facilitates transport and mounting. Reduced loads on the facade need less high static requirements. Thus, textile reinforced concrete facades are particularly suitable not only for the energetic renovation of facades, but also for new buildings. Further advantages result from the ecological point of view: relative to a comparable steel-reinforced wall, up to 80% of resources required for manufacturing thin-walled textile reinforced betoShell® elements can be saved. It will not only conserve resources but also saves energy and releases less CO2 emissions during manufacturing, transportation and demolition. This is true even in comparison with other facade systems.


   


Thinner and slimmer architectural concrete elements offer more freedom in designing facades. The spectrum of options for various surface treatments of betoShell® additional provide for a variety of customization choices in the surface design. betoShell® facades can be treated with pigments and different colored aggregates or glass aggregates and varied in form, by, for instance sand blasting, carving or acid-treatment. Relief structures and individual designing such as photo-concrete, BETOGLASS® - or BlingCrete™ facade are also possible.