Klimahaus 8° East, Bremerhaven

In mid-2009, the Klimahaus (climate house) 8° East opened in the middle of Bremerhaven’s maritime centre, exactly where Bremerhaven was founded in 1827, at 8° east longitude. The Klimahaus, in the form of a pneumatic raft, houses 143 exhibition rooms that visualise the environmental areas of climate, weather and landscape as the basis of life. Visitors “travel” around the earth on the eighth eastern longitude and learn about the different climate zones. The total area of the climate house, which is over 30 m high, consists of the inner load-bearing structure in solid construction (concrete), the roof covering of trapezoidal sheet metal, thermal insulation and standing seam roof, as well as the façade of 4,700 differently shaped laminated glass panes. A steel structure supports both the roof and the façade and also includes other small steel assemblies such as the central access with ring-shaped walkways, cubes and the technical centre with visitor terrace.

Fire and corrosion protection

For this steel construction, appropriate fire and corrosion protection is required that meets the special requirements during the construction and use phases over decades. This protection must meet several requirements: It should be applicable in as few layers as possible with a high corrosivity category, thus have a low total layer thickness with nevertheless fast drying and be environmentally compatible, i.e. with few so-called volatile organic substances. After additional consideration of the costs, functionality and service life of the coating, the decision was made in favour of the corrosion protection system from Sika, the manufacturer of the intended fire protection system. This involves coating the entire 65,000 m² steel structure with an actively pigmented primer, which is applied in the required wet film thickness. Without this permanent corrosion protection, weathering or chalking behind the glass panes or delamination between the individual layers occurs after only a short period of exposure in building projects such as the Klimahaus under light-resistant top coats on the façade beams.