A new Festhalle for Bern

What was built as a temporary structure in 1948 has been replaced 75 years later by a modern, new building that was inaugurated at the end of April 2025 as part of the BEA Bern Spring Fair. Covering an area of 9,400 m², the modern building houses two event halls for fairs, conferences, exhibitions and cultural and sporting events, as well as a spacious foyer. The multi-purpose ‘Stage’ hall is as big as two ice hockey pitches and holds up to 9,000 people. The smaller ‘Cube’ event hall provides space for around 2,400 people. At full capacity, there is an enormous amount of waste heat, up to 1,000 kW, that must be safely discharged, especially in summer.

Cooling and heating from a single machine

A custom CTA cooling/heating unit provides reliable air-conditioning all year round. In summer, it works as a chiller to cool the rooms; in winter, it works as an air/water heat pump to provide heat—or a combination of both, as required. The unit can be continually adjusted thanks to a frequency inverter. This means that, in each mode of operation, only the required amount of cooling or heat is produced. The cooling/heating unit has a cooling output of around 1,150 kW and, when operating as an air/water heat pump, produces around 820 kW of heat. It features two compressors as well as two cooling circuits, and its redundant operation offers increased operational safety. The system is controlled by a project-specific programmable logic controller (PLC) integrated into the higher-level control system.

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