Accident-free construction with PERI UP Easy

The "Ypsilon", with its 10-storey, 35 m high tower structure and adjacent 7-storey lateral tract, is Ulm's new, striking western gateway to the city centre. Rounded building corners on all sides with a corresponding aluminum-glass facade provide the building complex with a modern appearance. Retail outlets, offices, apartments and micro-apartments have been accommodated on 6,300 m² of usable space - in a central, convenient location directly next to the "Ehinger Tor" public transport hub. The trapezoidal-shaped tower floor plan in connection with the lateral tract result in a building geometry that, viewed from above, resembles a horizontally-positioned "Y". After 22 months of construction, the topping-out ceremony took place in July 2018.

Challenging requirements

The demands placed on the contracting company Matthäus Schmid GmbH & Co. KG in its role as general contractor were high. In addition to the challenging geometry of the structure with sloping walls and rounded corners with different radii, the building complex  including the two-storey underground car park was supported on 25 m long bored piles. Moreover, the inner-city construction work had to contend with a tight schedule regarding construction site logistics due to the Ulm tramway expansion project that was taking place at the same time. Likewise, directly adjacent local transport services were not allowed to be negatively affected and tough safety requirements had to be met in order to protect passers-by.

A comprehensive scaffold concept on the basis of the PERI UP Easy Facade scaffolding system was developed together with Schäfer Gerüstbau GmbH and PERI. This provided end-to-end work and safety scaffolding – assembled in line with construction progress - for all building shell and facade work. A pedestrian tunnel was integrated into the scaffolding solution that ensured convenient accessibility along with a high level of safety for passers-by during the entire construction phase. From the shell of the structure through to completion, the basic scaffold assembly could be maintained and did not have to undergo any time-consuming and costly modification work. All required adjustments were carried out by means of easy-to-install console bracket extensions.

PERI UP Easy

The use of PERI UP Easy on the construction site in Ulm provided multiple benefits for all trades involved in the project: scaffolding erection, shell construction and finishing work. The fact that PERI UP system decking features integrated protection against lifting in each deck allowed the opening and closing of individual scaffold bays. Thus, for example, large-sized facade elements could easily be brought into the building through the scaffolding – resulting in an immense reduction in the workload which also saved valuable crane and working time.

PERI UP Easy stands for simple and fast scaffolding assembly. Erection of the scaffold was carried out virtually tool-free while corner formations and console bracket extensions could be realised without any time-consuming installation of couplings. In addition, assembly speed was positively influenced by the low individual weights of the PERI UP Easy system components. Last but not least, the system-related assembly sequence with the guardrail in advance ensured safe and fast scaffold erection. Additional rope protection was not required - this reduced the stress placed on the body and provided comfortable freedom of movement. At the Ulm jobsite, Schäfer GmbH scaffolders mounted both guardrails from the level below - this saved them an additional working step regarding subsequent completion of the scaffolding level.

A striking design detail of the PERI UP Easy is the integrated scaffold nodes. Ledgers, supports and bracket consoles are all hooked directly into the nodes; no couplings are required. Thus, the frame scaffold can be seamlessly combined with the PERI UP Flex modular scaffolding, for example, for prefabricated shoring or stair towers. Based on this combinability, the pedestrian tunnels in Ulm were realised using PERI UP Flex.