Atreeum office building
The Atreeum office building is located close to the European Central Bank headquarters in east Frankfurt. It is an extraordinary building that innovatively advances traditional typologies such as the Moroccan riad.
With its dark clinker brick façade and minimalist window slits, externally the building recalls the former industrial and trades traditions typical of the area while at the same time providing protection against local emissions.
Inside the building you step into a shady, green workplace oasis with prime air quality. In the inner courtyards with their greenery and the highly varied outdoor workstations on the roof terraces and balconies, nature has become a building material in its own right.
The former commercial and industrial district on downtown Frankfurt’s eastern edge and bordering on Hanauer Landstrasse has evolved into an attractive place to live and work.
The Atreeum fits perfectly into this context of traditionally brick-faced perimeter blocks – and takes up an entire block. The different heights of the existing buildings in the surroundings are reflected in the new office building by carefully staggering different heights. The main three- to eight-story volume, with its sculptural feel, features setbacks that rise like steps to create urban design highlights at the corners and also ensure light floods into the courtyards. While the building, with its vertical slits on the outside, has a somewhat abstract appearance, the volume dissolves into horizontal layers towards the two atriums. The zestful outer skin consisting of narrow, vertical lines of clinker brick forms an envelope not unlike a tree’s bark that wraps protectively round the introverted inner courtyards onto which the office floors with their glass frontage open. The courtyards themselves are connected to the urban world outside by two-story passageways.
Water, sun, light, and green: The fountains and pools in the shady interior of a riad or a Late Roman atrium courtyard are emulated in the Atreeum by water retention areas on the roof terraces and in the courtyards. These areas release rainwater into the drains at a later point in time and primarily provide natural irrigation for the plants in the courtyards and on the roof terraces. This green internal world with its trees, bushes, climbing plants on both standalone masts and frames fosters a healthy and natural microclimate in the courtyards and the building’s interior. The air quality is enhanced by the evaporation caused by all the plant leaves that at the same time afford shade that tangibly reduces courtyard temperatures.
Shady pavilions and little groves as well as the balconies aligned to the green atriums create great communication spaces. The spatial structure offers countless opportunities for social get-togethers, interaction, and new work scenarios.
Photovoltaic systems, thermal concrete core activation, fresh-air circulation, and night-time cooling: The Atreeum not only features cutting-edge facilities technology but also goes one step further as an office building: Nature dons a new role as a construction material – with very specific functions and great potential. The Atreeum constitutes a sustainable, green, vibrant, high-quality working environment for tomorrow.
