Zurich Campus at MesseCity Cologne
Brick Kontor, Zurich Campus, MesseCity Cologne, brick façade
MesseCity is a major development strategically positioned in Cologne's most desirable location—right between Koelnmesse and Cologne Messe/Deutz railway station. The full project encompasses six office and hotel buildings, plus dining, retail, and service spaces, totaling 135,000 square meters of floor area. For the western complex, with the Zurich Group as its primary tenant, Backstein-Kontor created custom brick slips and specially formulated mortar colors.
The Zurich Campus comprises three buildings in MesseCity's western sector, designed by KSP Jürgen Engel Architects in Frankfurt. A 16-story tower paired with two six-story perimeter buildings creates a distinguished ensemble now home to approximately 2,700 Zurich Group employees.
The clinker brick façades honor the adjacent heritage-protected Rheinhallen, landmarks from the 1920s. The developers and City of Cologne had precise color requirements for the new buildings—specifications no off-the-shelf brick slip could meet. So Backstein-Kontor engineered a custom product specifically for this project. Through multiple test firings and careful iteration, the team achieved the exact color palette approved by all stakeholders.
The façade spans 17,000 square meters of brick surface and approximately 160,000 corner angle elements. Using a specialized bonding technique, the corner pieces were installed to eliminate color variation between surfaces and angles—a uniformity rarely achieved in brick façades with molded components. Backstein-Kontor also developed two custom mortar colors for the joints, enabling multiple visual effects across the surface using a single brick tone.
MesseCity exemplifies Backstein-Kontor's distinctive strength: innovating tailored solutions from the ground up. From brick to mortar, every element was custom-developed—delivering remarkable results.
Project: MesseCity, Cologne
Client: ECE Projektmanagement GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg
Architect: KSP Jürgen Engel Architects, Frankfurt
Material: 130
Format: SF, 290 x 10 x 52 mm
Contractor: GU Züblin
Photographer: Jörg Seiler, Cologne
Backstein-Kontor | Trade and Service in Clay Building Materials GmbH
Bernhard Krutzke
Leyendecker Straße 4, 50825 Cologne, Germany
T: +49 221 888785-0
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