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.”
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.
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 horizontal folds that move in the wind, condense, narrow and oscillate before our eyes, becoming unfocused. They shroud the cubature of the new high-rise like a dress where a round-about zipper opens narrow, and then broader openings, revealing a glimpse of the skin beneath.”
The project was commissioned in response to the rapidly-increasing density of the area. That consideration has, along with the pandemic, propelled a new generation of hybrid high-rise concepts that the Berlin-based firm wants to establish itself in line with.
The design, whose facade planning partner Ebener won a 2021 Metal Construction Award, was completed earlier in the year after a nine-year-long construction phase. Aachen-based firm Höhler + Partner acted as Architect on Site.
6 Comments
J Mayer H is one of the tackiest architect in business today.
tacky seems to be the trend. this is at least a complex tackiness, kind of op-art. elegant massing and fascinating effects at different scales.
Opening those curtains in the morning is a real workout.
I'd include a gratuitous penile reference, but I don't have time. Maybe later.
Study questions:
structure whose synergy they say serves as a “prototype of a hospital for the future”
I give up. How? And what exactly does that mean?
Why build a building that looks like a zipper?
And it does! It does look like a zipper! It looks like lots of zippers!
Does a zipper have synergy?
Does synergy have a zipper?
It also looks awfully nervous, like those op paintings decades ago.
(Now I see Midlander's op comparison.) Why is this effect appropriate for a hospital?
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