- The first ecological high-rise in the world, completed in 1997.
- RIBA Regional (Europe) Award in 1998.
- British Construction Industry Award in 1997.
Arup provided structural engineering for the 53-storey Commerzbank tower in the financial centre of Frankfurt am Main. Rising to around 300m, it was Europe’s tallest building until 2005.
Arup also worked on the preliminary design for the infrastructure, fire engineering and consulting for wind and geotechnical engineering.
Eco high-rise
The tower has natural ventilation with individually operable windows as well as transverse ventilation. The environmentally-friendly design earned the building the 'eco-high-rise' label.
The building has an equilateral triangle plan. The layout of the floor levels creates a helix with four-storey-high cut-outs, creating space for landscaped terraces called 'sky gardens'. The sky gardens, together with the central 200m-high atrium, maximise the use of daylight and provide natural ventilation and unique views through the building.
Steel
Commerzbank was the first skyscraper in Germany where steel was used as the main construction material. The structural design is based on a steel frame along the façade. In order to minimise settlement, the building rests on pile foundations approximately 50m deep.
There are three steel composite mega-columns positioned at the corners of the building. They contain risers for services, elevators and staircases. The individual office floors of 400m² are column-free, providing wonderful flexibility for design of interior space.
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