The expansion of Berlin-Schönefeld Airport—which has been under expansion since 2006—by approximately 970 hectares into the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport, with a total area of 1,470 hectares, presented a new opportunity for our company to manufacture facades consisting of membrane frames that offer sophisticated solutions from both a shading and architectural perspective.
The expansion of Berlin-Schönefeld Airport—which has been under construction since 2006—by approximately 970 hectares into the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport, with a total area of 1,470 hectares, presented a new opportunity for our company to manufacture facades consisting of membrane frames that offer sophisticated solutions in terms of shading technology and architecture.

From 2010 until the project’s handover in the summer of 2012, we continuously and, in some cases, simultaneously manufactured membranes—made of Teflon-coated glass fiber stretched over powder-coated aluminum frames—for the exterior and interior facades of buildings located on the airport grounds for four different clients.

The membranes manufactured by Graboplan Kft. can be found on the facades of the following buildings:

• terminal (exterior and interior facades)
• support facilities (exterior facades)
  • fire station
  • maintenance hangars
  • gas stations
• parking garages (exterior facades)

The total surface area of the facade elements manufactured by Graboplan at the BBI site is nearly 40,000 m², which amounts to almost 2,500 frames. Part of the installation work (approximately 18,000 m²) was/is being carried out by Graboplan Kft.

Advantages of membrane frames installed on building facades:

• Can be retrofitted to existing buildings
• Architecturally and visually uniform appearance
• Long service life with good UV and weather resistance
• Requires no special maintenance or cleaning; the Teflon coating allows the surface to clean itself naturally (through rainfall)
• Air permeability can be selected to meet specific needs thanks to the various mesh sizes of the glass fiber mesh; for example, in parking garages, a mesh with a looser weave is used to address exhaust fumes
• Membrane tension, and thus preservation of the exterior appearance, is ensured by appropriate pretensioning
• Fastening and suspension solutions based on structural calculations for frames of various sizes