Archinect - News

MVRDV plans a new 'Green Heart' in the center of Düsseldorf

2024-01-10T20:30:00-05:00

MVRDV has released updated renderings and other details about its forthcoming Grüne Mitte (or “Green Heart”) plan that calls for a redesigned new green district in the culturally rich German city of Düsseldorf.

The firm’s plan, which entails the construction of a colorful residential component totaling 500 units (half of which are considered social housing) around a small landscaped public space from fellow Dutch designers LOLA, was the product of an intensive community input process that included members of the diverse Flingern-Süd community.

The area has been considered a "hot spot" for squatting since the end of the 1980s and features equally popular shopping spaces and a parking structure that was built only 11 years ago before the land was acquired by the developers Cube Real Estate.

Image © MVDRV

As part of that process, residents selected the Green Heart proposal from a trio of outline primers. Their solution calls for a 36% reduction in paved areas, with a new...

UNStudio's edgy Eclipse office design opens in Düsseldorf

2023-11-16T14:56:00-05:00

UNStudio has completed work on a new office building for the German operation of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Düsseldorf.

Their vision for a new ‘vertical work campus‘ concept was realized with support from the local firm HPP Architekten. The firms say their main intent for the Eclipse project was to “foster interaction and to inspire creativity by providing an inspirational and attractive work environment for today’s talent.” The 196-foot-tall building includes 290,600 square feet of office space for around 1,200 workplaces across a total of 16 stories.

Image: © H.G. Esch

The design of Eclipse resolves space on a difficult site by positioning a triangular volume above a two-story podium. Its 360-degree facade orients to the neighboring Hilton Hotel at its south elevation while the northern-facing side is established parallel to Kennedydamm, the main motor vehicle thoroughfare leading to the center of the city.

Image: © H.G. Esch

The form and fenestration of the tower give it a uni...

J. MAYER H. completes cantilevering pavilion for FOM University’s Düsseldorf campus

2023-07-05T11:13:00-04:00

J. MAYER H. has completed a new pavilion for the FOM University campus in Düsseldorf, Germany. The structure adds to a larger university building completed by the firm five years ago, bringing a new social space to the 86,000-square-foot campus on the site of a former cargo train station.

Image credit: David Franck

The pavilion features shaded outdoor terraces underneath a cantilevering floating roof. Described as an annex to the main building, the inside of the facility offers over 1,000 square feet of social spaces.

Image credit: David Franck

“The FOM Pavilion adapts to the amorphous green landscape that interweaves the various levels of access to the university building and as a soft soil sculpture covers the underground garage beneath,” the design team explained in a statement. “As an addition to the university building, the pavilion provides spaces for seminars and lectures, workshops and social gatherings.”

Image credit: David ...

Santiago Calatrava unveils high-end Düsseldorf complex named Calatrava Boulevard

2023-01-26T12:00:00-05:00

Santiago Calatrava has unveiled a design proposal for a luxury mixed-use complex in Düsseldorf, Germany. Named Calatrava Boulevard and situated on Düsseldorf’s swanky Königsallee, the 375,000-square-foot development includes workplace, luxury retail, and upmarket restaurant spaces.

Image credit: Santiago Calatrava LLC

The scheme’s signature architectural element will be a curved, vaulted 135-foot-long roof orientated towards Martin-Luther-Platz, shaped to remain below the typical height of high-rise buildings in the area. The complex’s remaining roofscape will be topped with landscaped terraces containing integrated solar panels.

Image credit: Santiago Calatrava LLC

Inside, the first two levels of the project will contain 160,000 square feet of luxury restaurant and retail space, while the upper levels will house 236,000 square feet of office space. The internal facade is clad with what the team describes as “sinusoidal waveforms” that sweep towards the external facades to create unit...

J. MAYER H. unveils ZIPPER - RKM 740, a new hybrid healthcare-residential tower in Düsseldorf

2022-10-14T15:49:00-04:00

J. MAYER H. has shared photos of their new ZIPPER - RKM 740 Tower project in Düsseldorf. Overlooking the Rhine on the former campus of the Dominikus hospital, the new high-rise development includes residences and healthcare facilities inside a 22,000-square-meter (237,000-square-foot) structure whose synergy they say serves as a “prototype of a hospital for the future.”

Photo: David Franck

The facade’s perforated metal curtain provides the zipper reference through a series of gradual openings that can be flexibly adapted. The arrangement of the facade also works to provide shade and wind protection to the structure, whose program is split into two 6- and 14-story volumes defining both the medical functions and housing component, respectively.

Photo: David Franck

Per the architects: “The dynamic, organic shapes of the building rise like clouds of mist towards a thin volume at the top. It seems to grow in horiz...

Snøhetta's new Düsseldorf opera house design looks to create a cultural hub

2021-10-04T13:54:00-04:00

Snøhetta is set to unveil its latest design for an expanded international opera venue that it hopes will create a new, state-of-the-art cultural hub In the heart of one of Germany’s most artistic cities.

The proposed Duett Düsseldorf will replace the city’s existing 1,300-seat Opernhaus Düsseldorf with an extended program and added mixed-use towers that seamlessly integrate into the historic Hofgarten park below.

Image: © MIR

Emerging from a “forest-like” foyer entrance bifurcated by a transparent glass shell, visitors are welcomed to the horizontal volume by a sculptural wooden core topped off by three cantilevered floors culminating in a fourth-floor café that provides concert-goers with up-close views of the rehearsal spaces for both the orchestra and choir. The volume is completed by a 6,000-square-meter (32,300-square-foot) roof garden that can be adapted to serve as an event space for communal functions and offers the public 360-degree views of the city.

Image: © Plomp

This is ...

Fire breaks out at refugee camp in the Duesseldorf airport

2016-06-07T17:25:00-04:00

A large fire has broken out at a convention centre in the western German city of Duesseldorf. The centre acts as an accommodation hub for refugees waiting to be sent elsewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia. Everyone inside hall 18, where 180 refugees were staying, was brought to safety, according to reports. As the fire raged, a thick, black plume of smoke could be seen across Duesseldorf.

In related news:

in orbit - Tomás Saraceno's gigantic floating installation

2013-08-20T17:58:00-04:00

Artist and architect Tomás Saraceno [...] created a massive layered installation that’s suspended more than 25 meters (approx. 82 feet) in the air of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum in Düsseldorf, Germany. “in orbit” stretches across the piazza under the mammoth glass ceiling of the K21 Ständehaus with its three levels of steel wire netting. Situated on the three levels are six inflated spheres that range in size, with the largest being 27 feet in diameter.

Previously: Tomas Sarceno's Met Museum Rooftop Installation 'Cloud City' Now Open

J. MAYER H.‘s Design for Quartier M in Düsseldorf

2011-11-28T20:26:00-05:00

Berlin-based practice J. MAYER H. has landed one of two first prizes in a three-level peer review process for an urban planning concept in Düsseldorf, Germany. The concept was developed for the area of what was once the post office on Erkrather Strasse. The so-called "Quartier M" is to serve as the future link between the Hauptbahnhof central station and Tanzhaus NRW/Capitol, becoming a lively city quarter for living and working.