The Modular Design Behind the Technical Centre

A look inside the new technical centre of Forschungszentrum Jülich’s Institute for a Sustainable Hydrogen Economy. It is located at Brainergy Park Jülich. Photo: Forschungszentrum Jülich/Jansen

Built extraordinarily quickly

When a building contractor says that their company offers buildings in a modular design, this doesn’t necessarily sound like impressive architecture at first. However, Jan Weisel, managing director of VALERES Industriebau GmbH, now explains why this can indeed be the case, citing a specific example. Speaking at the technical centre of Forschungszentrum Jülich’s Institute for a Sustainable Hydrogen Economy (INW), he highlighted the advantages.

The technical centre was not only built extraordinarily quickly thanks to VALERES’ modular design system, it is also sustainable, tailored to the requirements of the user, and features an impressive architectural design. “This is not something that any company is capable of. And this is something we are proud of,” said Weisel, referring to the working methods of the Würselen-based firm, which has 25 employees.

The modular design allows us to respond more quickly to individual user requirements.”

Jan Weisel, managing director of VALERES

VALERES designed, planned, and built the technical centre in which researchers at the institute will soon design, develop, and test innovative hydrogen technologies. The building was completed in late summer and will soon be filled with scientific life. The Hydrogen Network NRW team based at INW used the almost empty interior space to invite the Brainergy Park neighbourhood to visit the centre.

HC-H2 Brainergy Park Connect is the name of the event hosted by the network team in which neighbours and interested parties from the innovative industrial estate regularly gather for a meeting over lunch. To give a clear overview: INW forms the core and is an organizational unit of the Helmholtz hydrogen cluster (HC-H2). INW is the tenant of the newly built technical centre. Jülicher Immobiliengesellschaft is the lessor and VALARES is the building contractor with its turnkey modular design.

A gross floor area of 1,110 square metres

VALERES built and handed over the technical centre within eight months. “The modular design allows us to respond more quickly to individual user requirements,” explained Weisel. The requirements of INW: to begin as quickly as possible and to respond to requirements during construction, which INW was often only able to first define while construction was ongoing. “If we’d have waited until planning was completely finished, then we’d currently be at square one,” said Weisel, looking into the completed centre.

According to Weisel, the technical centre provides INW with a gross floor area of 1,100 square metres. It is also sustainable and – as an EG40 efficient building – consumes 27 % less primary energy compared to a conventional reference building, Weisel adds. The proportion of renewable building material has been maximized, and the building will be fully supplied by a heat pump, thus using environmental energy. “For us, this technical centre represents a very important step towards practical work,” added Fabian Patzak, head of the Hydrogen Network NRW team.