Individual comfort in harmony - Grüner Bunker St. Pauli / Reverb Hard Rock Hotel
Located in the heart of St. Pauli, with a spectacular panoramic view of Hamburg and in direct sight of the Elbphilharmonie, the city's largest high-rise bunker is on its way to becoming a landmark of young Hamburg. Originally built by forced labourers, the structure became known as a music and media bunker after World War II and underwent extensive renovation starting in 2019. A visual highlight is its unique rooftop garden, featuring 4,700 trees, shrubs, and other plants, giving the "Grüner Bunker St. Pauli" its distinctive appearance and name. This green space is accessible to the public via a planted mountain path. However, the "Grüner Bunker St. Pauli" is much more than an urban oasis: designed as a memorial to the Nazi era and a creative hub, it has evolved into a meeting place for people with a wide variety of interests.
"Reverb by Hard Rock" – A Trendy Hotel in an Unusual Location
The attractiveness and prominence of the site have also been recognised by the US-based Hard Rock International, famous for its globally legendary "Hard Rock Cafés." The company took advantage of the bunker’s expansion by five floors to a total height of 58 metres to open its second "Reverb by Hard Rock" hotel worldwide. The 134 rooms are equipped with high-end design features, offering an additional incentive for visitors to stay in this striking building.
When developing a concept for climate control in the rooms, energy efficiency and sustainability were top priorities. The system integrator commissioned, VM-Technik GmbH, was also tasked with finding a room operating unit that could integrate seamlessly into the building automation system while meeting the design aesthetics of the interior and the comfort needs of the guests.
JOY: A High-Quality Design Solution with Great Functionality
Considering these criteria, André Lange, Managing Director at VM-Technik, opted for the JOY room operating unit from Thermokon: "One reason for this decision was our positive experience from previous projects, such as at the Intercity Hotel Lübeck. There, we integrated climate control into the hotel rooms using JOY to the great satisfaction of the operators. JOY is one of the few solutions that combine intuitive operation and high functionality with a premium appearance. Additional key advantages, from our perspective, include the high reliability and availability of Thermokon solutions as well as the flexibility to configure the user interface."
The JOY room controller enables powerful and convenient indoor climate control. Its elegant design features a slim housing with an illuminated on/off switch and a large backlit LCD, making it well-suited for high-end environments. In addition to its intuitive operation, JOY also excels in its simple integration into building management systems. It is available in various versions:
- As a fan coil controller with heating/cooling functionality or as a dedicated heating/cooling room controller, each with analogue and/or digital outputs (depending on model) for controlling fans and heating/cooling valves.
- Additionally, different BUS variants are available (Modbus / BACnet / KNX).
Simple, Fast Parameterisation Thanks to Modbus Version
In addition to using Thermokon sensors for the hotel’s primary systems, a total of 190 JOY room operating units of the type Fancoil EC AO2DO RS485 Modbus in black are installed at "Reverb by Hard Rock." This choice allowed VM-Technik GmbH to meet the operators' request for minimal wiring. Only the ceiling-integrated fan coil units from FläktGroup are wired to the room operating unit. Communication is handled via Modbus with WAGO controllers of type 750, to which the room operating unit and other building automation components from VM-Technik GmbH are connected.
"One particular challenge in this project was that the interaction between the controller and JOY could only be developed during commissioning due to time constraints," explains André Lange. "The high flexibility of the room operating unit and the ability for quick and easy parameterisation proved to be a great advantage in this situation. We only had to pre-set the Modbus address – the rest of the configuration was carried out via software macros and the BUS system through the controller. This made the parameterisation highly time- and cost-efficient." The flexibility of the JOY device also allowed for a project-specific configuration of the user interface using the symbols on the touch display to meet individual requirements.
Energy-Efficient Room Control via the Booking System
To meet the operators' specifications, VM-Technik also implemented a powerful solution to enhance energy efficiency. The room operating units were software-integrated with the "Reverb by Hard Rock" hotel booking system, a solution provided by Antcas. This integration ensures that different operating modes are automatically set based on the room occupancy status via BUS. One optimisation achieved is improved room heating: as soon as a guest checks in, the target room temperature is automatically raised via Modbus. At the same time, guests can manually adjust the room control via JOY to match their personal comfort preferences.
Both the overall solution and the advantages of JOY have proven themselves in the daily operation of "Reverb by Hard Rock." André Lange, who has had a long-standing collaboration with Thermokon, is highly satisfied with the outcome: "We find the high quality of Thermokon products just as convincing as the seamless implementation processes that these solutions enable. This allowed us to fully meet all the hotel operators' requirements."
