In 2006, the ThyssenKrupp Group successfully completed an open international two-phase competition for the ThyssenKrupp Headquarters in Essen. The winners were chosen during the deciding two-day panel meeting at the Zollverein School of Management and Design, Essen. Headed by Kaspar Kraemer, President of the BDA Association of German Architects. The panel was made up of representatives of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the municipality of Essen, internationally renowned experts and representatives of the client, ThyssenKrupp AG, who was impressed with the variety and high quality of the work. Here, we presents the third prize which was awarded to: Zaha Hadid Architects, London and Manfred Nagel with DHBT, Kiel. The project description below comes from Zaha Hadid Architects.
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Along with the development of the new headquarters area, the urban masterplan includes the design of office buildings for the most important divisions, as well a multi-functional building, an academy and a hotel. It also solves the integration of an existing building on the site, together with some more subsidiary buildings orientated towards one central plaza to form the new quarter.
Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
Starting from this centre, axes span spiral-like and in streamlined shapes in all directions, creating a centrifugal field that forms the outline of the buildings and the surrounding landscape. Originated in such a way, the spatial development evokes images of dune landscapes or glacier fields, formed and polished by the elementary forces of nature such as wind, water and ice drift.
The arrangement of the buildings within the headquarter area reacts to the functional interactions and organisational structures within the different divisions.
All prominent buildings are located directly next to the central plaza – the communicative centre – and, like a focal point, gain in height and volume within the sharp and diverging figure.
The buildings of the operational divisions, the future development and the hotel are found towards the edges of the planning area. The central, star-shaped pedestrian and bicycle way system ties everything together and, at the same time, provides a connection to Essen city centre.
