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BIG proposes a new high-rise block for Frankfurt city center that will fill and enrich the urban setting with more contemporary look and newly innovative approach will challenge to the existing environmental density.

Frankfurt is an urban setting that combines the classical European perimeter block with the highrises of a modern metropolis—forming a vibrant cluster of structures in the city center. This architectural combination offers density and a dynamic skyline, echoing the Taunus Mountains that bound Frankfurt to the north.

The high-rise is located directly in the center of this mix of tall and low, informed by its context and program to offer a silhouette that is both rational and sculptural. BIG proposes a tower that ‘twists’ itself to capture and accommodate the best spaces for each specific program and height. The building houses a mix of two office types as well as residential and public spaces, utilizing each to define the tower’s design.

Organized as a slender and rational stack of inhabited floors, the tower is interrupted by two sculptural moves where the program changes. At street level the floors are shifted backwards and forwards to create green terraces and canopies facing the park.

In the middle of the silhouette, where the tower turns residential, the floor plates slide out in a spiraling movement, creating terraces and outdoor space for residents. In its upper section the tower returns to a simple stack of optimized floor plates, completing its twist to rejoin the orientation of the floors below.

These inhabitable movements bring human scale from street level into the skyline, embodying the unique character of Frankfurt. The tower combines these spaces for working and living for a form that is at once classical and sculptural.

Project Facts

Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Petersen

Project Leader: Lorenzo Boddi

Team: Enea Michelesio, Max Aldunate Reitour, Gabriele Ubareviciute, Joanna, Jakubowska, Katarzyna Joanna Piekarczyk, Lucas Carriere, Emily King, Julieta Muzillo, Giedrius Mamavicius, Lucian Tofan, Raphael Ciriani

Project: High-rise In Frankfurt

Year: 2015

Type: Competition

Client: Tishman Speyer

Collaborators: Bollinger + Grohmann

Size: 65.000 m2

Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Status: In Progress

> via BIG