It is called the “hellhole of creation” – the Danakil Desert in Ethiopia. This desert gave its name to the Danakil House, which will open its doors to visitors at the German National Garden Show (BUGA) 2021. But how can the desert and jungle house be designed without damaging the exotic plants through exhaust emissions? Quite simply: with emission-free solutions from Wacker Neuson. A visit to the – in two senses – green construction site in Erfurt, Germany.
On April 23, 2021, the time has come: For six months, visitors can experience a wide variety of plants, architectural features and inspiring gardening attractions in the two exhibitions of BUGA – egapark with 36 hectares and Petersberg with seven hectares. The highlight of egapark is Danakil, which consists of a desert and a jungle house. The combination of modern architecture, nature, culture, sustainable management and ecology makes the Danakil house a very special visitor experience.
“In our Danakil house, we show the visitors how plants and animals use different strategies to adjust to the environment and adapt to the lack or overabundance of water.”
– Kathrin Weiß, managing director of egapark and BUGA
A particularly green construction project
When planting the jungle house, it was particularly important that no exhaust emissions were produced when the trees and flowers were planted. “This way, on the one hand, the employees are protected as, due to the sensitive plants, opening windows or doors or using fans is not possible during the work on the Danakil house. On the other hand, the sensitive plants are not exposed to any exhaust fumes and no damage is caused,” explains Udo Lindenlaub, managing director LINDENLAUB GmbH. This is the only way to ensure that the sensitive plants are not damaged. The solution for this special project found the implementing company LINDENLAUB GmbH, gardening and landscaping, with Wacker Neuson: With the zero emission solutions emission-free working is not a problem and the green construction site could be realized. The reason: All products in the zero emission series work without exhaust emissions and extremely quietly – and without any compromises regarding performance.
What’s more: The zero emission machines and equipment are particularly easy to operate, supply sufficient energy for a typical workday and can really score points in confined work environments due to their compact dimensions.
Environmentally-friendly compaction, excavation, transport
When building the Danakil house, a wide variety of work processes had to be carried out using emission-free construction machines and equipment. This is where Wacker Neuson’s broad product portfolio scored, as almost the entire zero emission range was used here. The mini-excavator EZ17e, the latest addition to the zero emission series, was responsible for the excavation work in order to be able to put plants in the right places. Besides this, its tasks included moving natural stones. No problem for the 1.5 metric-ton electric excavator, as it has the same performance as the conventional model.
Transporting materials efficiently, easily and without emissions – this is where the electric wheel loader WL20e and the electric wheel dumper DW15e are at home. The wheel loader was used for a variety of applications in this project: For one, with a shovel volume of 0.2 cubic meters, it loaded the dumper with earth. For another, equipped with a pallet fork, it proved a worthy transport helper.
“The good thing about electric machines is that we just need to plug them in and charge them up. The battery charges in a couple of hours, providing enough power for the machine to work for the whole day.”
– Andreas Lier, lanscape gardener LINDENLAUB GmbH
To prepare the paths in the Danakil house, the ground in particularly confined areas was compacted with a battery-powered rammer; a battery-powered vibratory plate was deployed in larger areas. Both units of compaction equipment can be operated with the same modular lithium-ion battery, which can be replaced in no time – specially designed for the hard work applications in the construction industry.
“Fundamentally, issues such as sustainability and climate and environmental protection are particularly important to us at BUGA. And this, for us, of course means that we are very happy when there are zero emissions as well as zero noise on construction sites.”
– Kathrin Weiß, managing director of egapark and BUGA
Curious to see what the green building site looks like? Here you can find a video about the application:
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