Office Center at „Neuer Kanzlerplatz Bonn“
Client: Art-Invest Real Estate, Cologne
Owner since 2022: Union Invest
1st prize Competition 2015, Completion 2022/2023
Intended Certificate: LEED Gold, Winner German Design Award 2024
Photos: Christa Lachenmaier, HG Esch
Sculpture „Mirror Pavilion“: Jeppe Hein, (Photo: Art-Invest)
Press kit on v2com
A new office building ensemble has been built in the direct vicinity of the Federal Quarter and the Museum Mile. The vacant predecessor building, the "Bonn Center" from the 1960s, was demolished in 2017. The focus of the current project is on high-quality architecture that simultaneously offers urban and functional quality.
Three office buildings of different heights, all designed on pentagonal layouts, surround the new city square, in the center of which visitors are presented with a reflecting work of art by the Dane Jeppe Hein. The new development creates a harmonious transition to the adjacent residential development to the south.
With 28 stories, the high-rise is almost as tall as the neighboring former House of Representatives, the "Lange Eugen," at about 100 meters. The new tower is part of Bonn's high-rise concept.
The façade of white, acid-etched, double-waterproofed concrete binds all three buildings into a united whole. At the same time, the geometries of the façade structures create a constantly shifting appearance as the viewer's perspective alters.
In Houses 2 and 3 (5- to 7-storey), the façade grid has been designed as load-bearing, thus making structural use of this element’s depth. This type of construction keeps the office storeys free from columns or supports projecting into the interior.
In House 1 (7- to 28-storey), unlike in 2 and 3, the façade bays are stretched over two, and at the base even three, storeys, emphasising the verticality of the building. In addition, at façade level, a conventional load-bearing reinforced concrete skeleton has been planned in and clad in facing panels of fibreglass-reinforced concrete.
Great care was put into reconciling the concrete recipes, achieving a unified appearance despite the different construction methods.
The façade design is continued in the three-storey foyer of the skyscraper through up to 11-metre-long fibreglass concrete elements on the ceiling and rear wall. The remaining walls – a completely transparent post and beam façade – are in contrast with this, visually retreating into the background.