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Architects: HWKN Architecture
- Area: 39000 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Klemens Renner
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Manufacturers: Gealan
Text description provided by the architects. HWKN's new iLive Campus in Frankfurt, designed in collaboration with AI+P, addresses the younger generation's need for flexible and affordable living solutions. This consciously unique building occupies a large corner site adjacent to the Frankfurt School of Management and Finance and features 1,000 high-design apartment units for students, making it the largest planned student and serviced apartment project in Germany. HWKN, along with their client, the German-based iLive, and AI+P, incorporated another innovative living alternative: a lively, youth-oriented hotel, part of the Rioca Hotel group.
The ground floor offers an array of social hubs. There's a mailbox area, a welcome bar, and a gaming corridor, complete with pool tables, foosball tables, and more. The space also offers numerous co-work opportunities both on the ground floor and in the penthouse restaurant. As hybrid work schedules continue to rise in popularity, HWKN acknowledges the need for communal workspaces, only further emphasizing the overall ethos of iLive Frankfurt by redefining the notion of an extended stay, offering various options in terms of size, occupancy duration, and socialization. iLive Frankfurt caters to the spontaneous lifestyle choices of today's young generation.
iLive Frankfurt stands out on Adickesallee Strasse with its striking façade. This is the front of the Hotel Rioca, featuring large windows and a brick cross-hatching pattern, with open terraces every two stories running along the face of the building, extending inwards and outwards. This design creates a façade that appears in motion, with individual folds rippling across its face. HWKN partner Robert May describes this design as "a marriage of the rational and emotional." The undulating façade also allows for natural planting on its terraces, adding a green element that is both surprising and sought-after. To prevent the iLive campus from appearing unnecessarily imposing, HWKN's design incorporates 'moments of local difference.' For example, the western frontage changes from brick to lighter stucco. Atop the middle section of these buildings is a set-back covered terrace, with a columned façade similar to that on the lower floors. Metal accent handrails add luminosity and spark. HWKN envisioned the two housing alternatives on the iLive campus as a singular entity.
The firm in collaboration with the landscape firm Future Green included shared outdoor amenities such as a kitchen with a grill, a home theater for movie nights, rooftop terraces with panoramic views, sports facilities including a volleyball court and a multi-sport field, and social spaces like a Rioca Bar, a community area with games, and a communal kitchen. HWKN's design of the iLive Campus captures the excitement and flexibility of today's youth, creating a rare living option in this lively section of Frankfurt where it's most needed.
