Tall & Urban News

Residential Complex Will Rise in Frankfurt Adjacent to Central Station

Frankfurt Photoshop
Frankfurt Photoshop
13 March 2019 | Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Mecanoo of Delft, Netherlands, has released visuals of Frankfurt Grand Central, a residential complex in Frankfurt, Germany, that will feature a copper-colored tower. Mecanoo won a competition to design Frankfurt Grand Central for Phoenix and Gross & Partner, which is developing the scheme close to the city’s Central Station.

It will be distinguished by its 40-story tower, which is wrapped in copper-colored metal to echo the “industrial atmosphere” of the railside site.

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“The past few years have seen the beginnings of a transformation of the area,” explained the architecture studio. “The arrival of the new residential tower will be an important impetus for the transformation of this currently business-focused area into a mixed neighborhood for living and working.”

Alongside the 140-meter-high tower, Mecanoo has designed an eight-story block for Frankfurt Grand Central that will be wrapped in the same metallic cladding. Together they will host a mix of social and private housing, and be joined by a glass-walled plinth at ground level.

While the smaller block will be dedicated to affordable housing, the tower will host social housing on its seven lowest floors, and private units and penthouses on the upper levels. The form of the tower will gradually change in accordance with these different property types, as Mecanoo has designed them each with differently sized and positioned balconies.

Frankfurt Grand Central will be complete with a subterranean car park, and a mix of workspaces, retail and catering facilities, as well as a gym and kindergarten inside the glass plinth. Mecanoo will also incorporate a public square and a linear park that extends to the Central Station to create a “lively public space” that will connect the area with the existing neighborhood.

Mecanoo’s Frankfurt Grand Central proposal follows a number of other high-rise buildings designed for the city since it embarked on a “Brexit building boom” in 2017. The city is bidding to woo banks from London by building dozens of new high-rise towers, including a state-of the-art office block by BIG and a luxury apartment block by Buro Ole Scheeren.

Mecanoo was founded by architect Francine Houben in 1984. Other recent work by the studio includes a giant red cultural center in China, the world’s largest performing arts center, and a glass house on a lake in the Cotswolds.

For more on this story go to Dezeen.