“Characteristic of Lightness”: Basel Office Award for New Bundesbank Buildings | hessenschaud

Bankers need space: Bundesbank is planning three new office buildings and a convention center for its headquarters in Frankfurt. It is now clear who is allowed to structurally implement the whole thing.

Basel architectural office Morger Partner has been awarded the contract for the planned new office building for the Bundesbank headquarters in Frankfurt. “We are very pleased to be working with Mörger partner Architekten to solidify this core area of ​​our campus project,” Bundesbank board member Johannes Birmann said on Wednesday.

In addition to the office buildings, which include a convention centre, the architecture firm will plan a logistics center on the eastern side of the site. It is not clear how long the new buildings should be ready. This was not foreseen at this initial planning stage, the Bundesbank announced in response to a human resource request.

Morger Partner’s design won first prize in the architecture competition in June 2020 and as such had a good chance of winning. The essential elements of the design are three identical office buildings that align to the existing main building.

The main building is also to be renovated

The Swiss outlined their vision in the competition, saying, “The valued concrete architecture of the existing building is enriched by an architectural language that is characterized by open light.” Basel Architects had “intelligently updated” the urban planning specifications, jury president Arno Lederer said in the announcement last year.

The Bundesbank is looking to expand its headquarters in Frankfurt to be able to accommodate employees from other locations in the city. The expanded headquarters will employ a total of 5,000 people.

The striking main building of 1972 – extremely narrow, but rather tall – is being completely renovated. In addition, sports facilities, a daycare centre, a gastro pavilion and a new underground car park are to be built on site. The Bundesbank now wishes to invite the six winners of the architectural competition to submit a proposal for these buildings. The contract for this is expected to be awarded in the first quarter of 2022.