Merck Innovation Center & Employee Restaurant

The Merck Innovation Center (MIC) symbolizes the development of the Merck KGaA headquarters in Darmstadt from a production site to a global center for knowledge and innovation. The architecture of the building already makes clear statements about the processes and working methods of the people who drive innovative projects inside. With room heights of up to eight meters, variously designed and interlinked working areas on a usable floor space of 7,100 m², as well as a pronounced supply of natural light, an environment for creative work at a high level of performance was created. To the west, a walkway creates a connection both for pedestrians and the architecture to the site's staff restaurant.

Lindner Fassaden GmbH was commissioned with the construction of the facades of the Merck Innovation Center and the staff restaurant. The construction was characterized by a field of tension between the high demands on the explosion protection, due to the settlement at the chemical plant; the statics, which had to consider the massive use of steel; and last but not least, the look that, according to the plans of Henn Architekten, should result in an extremely filigree and delicate facade system. These requirements were agreed in a post and beam construction made of steel and aluminum with a view width of 76 and 96 millimeters. A special feature are the specially designed façade fixtures, which were designed by means of weld-on bolts on the concrete ceilings and combined steel element connectors as plug-in construction. They improve the explosion protection and absorb additional loads from the suspended maintenance balconies as well as the baffle plates located at the front. The latter are each fixed only to the top and bottom of the three-pane laminated glass and designed laterally as an open glass edge. The maintenance balconies were mounted using stainless steel tension rods so that the loads in the attic area were loaded vertically into the building via a gallows construction.