Sustainability is a mission: Eight kilometers of hornbeam hedges for a supergreen®-project. Over 30,000 plants – Europe’s largest green facade. The facade is an essential element of the Kö-Bogen II commercial and office building. The ensemble marks the conclusion of an urban renewal project in the heart of Düsseldorf.
It also represents a paradigm shift: from an urban perspective, it signals a departure from the automotive era and a turn towards people-oriented planning. With Europe’s largest green facade, it offers an urban response to climate change and creates a new green heart in Düsseldorf’s inner city.
photography by ingenhoven architects / HGEsch
Kö-Bogen’s sloping green facades:-
Today, where an elevated motorway once dominated the landscape, the Hofgarten has moved back into the heart of the city. Kö-Bogen’s sloping green facades face one another in a composition inspired by Land Art. The new building complex oscillates in a deliberate indeterminacy between the city and the park.
The two structures form a dynamic entrance to Gustaf-Gründgens-Platz, which opens up the view to icons of post-war modernism – the clear austerity of the Dreischeibenhaus (1960) and the buoyant lightness of the Schauspielhaus (1970). Kö-Bogen II is a contemporary response to these two historic landmarks, without competing with them.
photography by ingenhoven architects / HGEsch
Going green. The hornbeam was intentionally selected as a native hardwood species that keeps its leaves in winter. A comprehensive phytotechnological concept was developed together with Prof.
Dr. Strauch, Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, to incorporate the hedges into the building design. The greenery improves the city’s microclimate – it protects against the sun’s rays in summer and reduces urban heat, binds carbon dioxide, stores moisture, attenuates noise, and supports biodiversity.
photography by ingenhoven architects / HGEsch
The ecological benefit of the hornbeam hedges is equivalent to that of approximately 80 fully-grown deciduous trees. This integration of nature into architecture offers a contemporary urban response to climate change. The aim of Kö-Bogen II is to pursue an overall ecological concept, explicitly to improve the city’s microclimate.
Project Info:
Architects: ingenhoven architects
Location: Germany
Area: 41370 m2
Project Year: 2020
Photographs: ingenhoven architects / HGEsch
Project Name: Kö-Bogen II Office Building
