At the Primary School in Neubiberg, the capacious fins, suspended from the façade, undertake the customised distribution of light and shadow. The fins are mounted on an external balcony. Between the actual building and the façade cladding is an accessible walkway, which emphasises the transparency and airiness of the overall impression given by the school building – and simultaneously serves pragmatically as an emergency exit.
The solar protection fins themselves consist of an aluminium frame encased in expanded metal. In order to comprehend the active principle of the expanded metal fins, it is worth taking a look at the “inner life” of the individual fin elements. All the fins are sheathed with the same expanded metal from 99.5 aluminium. To ensure optimal solar protection, a mesh with the dimensions 44 x 8.4 x 3 x 2mm was defined.
The numerous individual domes, which are generated during the stretching process of the metal, function as innumerable small solar protection fins. As a result, the fins appear transparent when viewed at close range – and from both directions: from the outside looking in, and from the inside looking out.
This makes the Primary School Neubiberg particularly attractive, as the schoolchildren are able to look out of their classrooms directly into the biotope of the Haching meadowland. At the same time, the alignment of the mesh and domes of the expanded metal prevents penetration by the blazing summer sun.
