Just steps away from Bonn's former federal district and its renowned museum mile, a striking new ensemble has emerged, anchored by a distinctive tower. Cologne's JSWD architects—winners of the 2015 urban planning competition—have created a sophisticated office quarter for Art-Invest Real Estate that thoughtfully engages the adjacent Bundeskanzlerplatz through a carefully designed public plaza.

The striking new building complex replaces the aging Bonn Centre—which for nearly 50 years defined the cityscape with its 18 floors while blocking key sightlines and movement corridors. The redesign creates a graceful transition to the residential neighborhoods to the south, achieving this for the first time. Three sculptural forms with irregular footprints settle into the corners of the triangular site, anchoring a vibrant central plaza. The prestigious foyers of the new office towers and a public restaurant, each with their own forecourts, face this thoughtfully designed public realm. Danish artist Jeppe Hein realized his walk-in artwork "Mirror Pavilion" on this site. Rising from one of the buildings stands a striking 28-story tower reaching just over 100 meters—a slender vertical accent that powerfully grounds the project within Bonn's urban landscape. Alongside Egon Eiermann's "Langer Eugen" and Helmut Jahn's "Post Tower," this tower becomes a defining new landmark that reshapes the city's iconic silhouette. Beyond diverse office tenants, Design Offices curates a versatile range of spaces for events, conferences, and collaborative work. The entire ensemble is unified by a striking façade of white architectural concrete—acid-treated and engineered with advanced water-resistant properties—creating a cohesive visual identity.

Achieving a cohesive, monolithic façade across all three buildings—regardless of construction methods or timing—required meticulous attention to concrete composition. The façade's geometric patterning creates a dynamic visual effect that shifts subtly with changing light and perspective. The two lower buildings employ load-bearing façade grids, freeing their office floors from interior columns entirely. For the tower, façade panels span two storeys vertically, and three in the base, emphasizing its soaring height. A conventional reinforced concrete skeleton was clad with glass-fibre-reinforced concrete panels to achieve this vision. The design carries through into the building foyers, where triangular façade elements wrap both ceiling and walls—reaching up to eleven metres in the tower's dramatic three-storey entrance hall. Beyond its striking aesthetic, the project has earned LEED Gold pre-certification, demonstrating its commitment to sustainable design.

www.jswd.de

Photography:
HG Esch
www.hgesch.de
Christa Lachenmaier
www.christalachenmaier.com

(Published in CUBE Cologne 03|24)