Dezeen Magazine

Visual of the Pluvia drainage system by Geberit

Geberit develops flexible Mepla pipe and Pluvia drainage systems

Dezeen promotion: Swiss brand Geberit has developed a solution for draining water quickly from large roof areas and a pipe system that can deliver both drinking water and heating.

The compact Pluvia drainage system uses negative pressure to achieve almost double the discharge rate of conventional drainage systems.

The system has been standardised so that multiple units can be combined together in a single system. Roof outlets come in a variety of different designs and sizes that can be installed on practically any roof structure.

The Pluvia roof outlets by Geberit
The Pluvia drainage system can be installed on practically any roof structure

The outlets have long outlet connection pieces to facilitate installation into highly insulated roofs, and the outlet grating has a rotating lock bar that allows it to be attached and removed easily and without tools.

For warm roofs, green roofs or weight-bearing roofs, Geberit has designed Pluvia solutions for vapour barrier connection to ensure a sealed, durable system.

Visual of the Pluvia roof outlet
Pluvia outlets have long outlet connection pieces

Planning and calculation of all Pluvia drainage systems are supported by Geberit's ProPlanner software. The hydraulic calculation can now also be done in the Autodesk Revit CAD software using a corresponding plug-in.

Geberit offers a free download of all Building Information Modelling (BIM) data in the Autodesk Revit format, so that a sanitary engineer can calculate the configuration of the entire system in the CAD program.

Mepla pipe system
Geberit's Mepla pipe system can deliver both drinking water and heating

Geberit's Mepla system is a multilayer pipe system that can be used to deliver both drinking water and heating.

Mepla combines metal and plastic to take advantage of the best of both materials. It consists of an outer layer of second-generation polyethylene of raised temperature (PE-RT), a middle layer of aluminium and an inner layer of PE-RT to make it is stable yet bendable.

A multilayered Mepla pipe
Geberit has designed about 300 Mepla fittings

Pipes come in sizes from 16 to 75 millimetres and Geberit has designed a selection of about 300 fittings, made from gunmetal and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), to make sure Mepla suits nearly all installation tasks.

All fittings have protective caps so they can be hygienically stored.

Mepla multilayered pipes
Mepla pipes consist of three layers

Using PE-RT and aluminium makes Mepla more corrosion-resistant than metal pipes, but more robust than plastic pipes.

The pipe system also remains leak-proof even when subjected to pressure that far exceeds the standard testing pressure of 1.1 megapascals.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Geberit as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.