Bjarke Ingels Group is fast becoming a go-to firm for high-rise design briefs on both sides of the Atlantic. With two major skyscrapers underway in Canada, and their biggest commission of all in New York City — the “vertical village” of 2 World Trade Center — they have now unveiled designs for a mixed-use tower in Frankfurt, Germany, complete with a jaunty “shift at the hip.”
The form of BIG’s latest skyscraper, the Metzler Tower, is driven by its mixed-use program, with office space occupying the lower portion of the tower and residential apartments filling the upper half. In between, Ingels has introduced a characteristic twist to an otherwise rational structure, sliding the central floor plates outward to reveal a series of lofty outdoor terraces for residents. These external spaces are intended to create a connection with the park below, offering expansive views south across Frankfurt.
The steel and glass building possesses a restrained, modernist aesthetic, but its pivoting midriff provides a dash of playfulness, bearing some similarities to MVRDV’s torqued tower in Vienna (slated for completion in 2018). At ground level, further floors are offset to provide green terraces facing a new public square at the heart of the city.
Inside, regular open-plan floors enable flexible layouts for offices situated around central cores that provide access to all levels including the apartments above. The structure marks another of BIG’s experiments with the standard high-rise typology as Ingels’ studio continues to subtly subvert classic modernist principles to enliven the skyline and provide additional amenities for inhabitants of a tower’s upper stories.
Replacing a building that has housed Metzler Bank for the last two centuries, the 610-foot-high tower will be completed in collaboration with local firm Bollinger+Grohmann.
