The headquarters of Anton Paar in Graz will be expanded to include a new technology centre.
Anton Paar, the manufacturer of measurement instruments and technologies, has announced that it intends to expands the company’s headquarters in Graz-Straßgang (Austria) to include a new technology centre.
The new technology centre will cover an area of 26,800 m2 and will include all business units as well as the central research and development department, while the three oldest buildings of the site were demolished. The expanded site will be characterised by an open space concept to serve natural ventilation and will also include two atriums that allow the interior rooms to be supplied with natural light.
“The planning for the new technology center began back in 2014. However, a development plan obligation and restrictions on the height of the building delayed the project by year. 650 employees will move into the new building in 2024. With the construction, we have not only created more space for growth, but the building is also technologically state-of-the-art,” stated Dominik Santner, the COO of Anton Paar and head of the construction project.
There are currently around 1,400 employees at the Graz site, but the expansion will allow to host up to 1,000 workplaces. On 25th
April 2022, Anton Paar celebrated the beginning of the €60 million construction works, that are carried out by the architectural office KFR ZT GmbH and are expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
The solar thermal and ice energy storage system
The new technology centre of Anton Paar will employ an innovative ice energy storage system with heat pumps for almost half of the cooling and heating needs of the site. It is composed by an underground basin with a diameter of 19 m and a depth of 6 m, corresponding to a water volume of about 1.7 million l.
Before the summer, the water is frozen. The melting heat and then the cold water are used to cool the building. Heat pumps are used to transfer the heat from the building to the storage tank, which is then heated over the course of several months. At the beginning of the cold season, the storage tank is then warmed up and can be used to heat the building in the winter until it freezes again at the end of the winter. In addition, the company will have photovoltaic and solar thermal systems installed on the roof.