UNStudio has won a competition to transform the former Deutsche Bank site in Frankfurt's financial district into a lively mixed-use site comprised of offices, apartments, hotels, retail, gastro and open public spaces. With four high-rise towers reaching up to 228-meters-tall, the proposal plans to feature the city's highest residential and office buildings.
“Bringing a mixed-use project into this financial district will not only enliven the area during daytime, but it will also introduce evening programs and create an essential form of social sustainability to this part of the city," says Ben van Berkel of UNStudio. "The introduction of the residential and the leisure components are key to this strategy. This sculptural family of towers will also create the suggestion of a cohesive neighborhood within the skyline and emphasize the importance of this part of the city within the whole."
From the architects: A key aim of UNStudio’s proposal was to open up the site towards the city centre and integrate the listed building façades in the Junghofstraße. New connecting routes, passages and squares within the site will enliven the area and connect it to the pedestrian zones in the city centre. Publicly accessible spaces, such as a planned roof garden, a city square, multiple restaurants and retail outlets aim to improve the quality of time spent in the financial district. Accordingly, the proposals are in line with the city's objectives of making the area more accessible and generating more public use, whilst simultaneously creating space for apartments and hotels on the location.
The four high-rise towers and public spaces on the Deutsche Bank site will form a new urban quarter. Two of the towers are earmarked for residential use, while areas for restaurants and retail will also be developed. With its special location within the skyline and its adjacency to the shopping and pedestrian zones of the city centre, the project has the potential to create an area of cosmopolitan urbanism that is unique in Germany.
The development operates as an urban hinge to connect the financial district with the city centre. With a diversity of publicly accessible functions not only connects former separated areas of the city, but creates a unique and lively destination for inhabitants, professionals from the Bankenviertel, neighbors and visitors. Through a sequence of two public squares and numerous pedestrian accesses the new quarter promises to become a lively new neighborhood in Frankfurt.
The project will include a new high-rise building with 59 floors - another building within Frankfurt's Skyline that has the potential to enrich the high-rise landscape. This tower is already included in the current zoning plan. The two additional high-rise residential buildings that together will provisionally provide space for more than 600 apartments are new features. In addition, there will be a daycare centre for children, two hotels and a wide-ranging selection of restaurants and retail outlets.
The four towers are grouped in such a way that the central square is completely framed. The differentiation of the orientation and heights of the four high-rise buildings articulates variations within the skyline and optimizes daylight penetration. The volumes of the towers, with their subtle kinks and shifts, create unique spatial and visual relationships.
The next step will involve further qualification processes for the building, which will commence shortly. The start of construction of the new district is expected in the course of the coming year, while the first building is expected to be in use in 2020.
