Outline Concept
“The theme of the design is the interdependency of urban, European and global passions today. In times of globalisation we care 4 you.

We care for the ground layer: the existing Grossmarkthalle. The history and the conditions of the site. The city structure and the regional climate and setting.

We care for the top layer, the global predicament, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd worlds. The environmental linkages, the global bondage.

We care for the European Iayer, the European Spirit, which means interdependency between individuals, the voids in the city and the long-term invitation to economic globalisation.

Interdependencies mean responsibility: to optimise the usage of land for further demands, to reserve and enhance, the voids in the city, to infuse the empty spaces with natural life.

To use the existing places in the urban structure: the hall is the base for the new building, the boxes that formerly stood alongside are the basis for the lines and the grid of the landscape design.

The New European Central Bank has no other footprint than the existing Grossmarkthalle: The new building mirrors the old building vertically on the line of the horizon. The interdependercies between the old and new are made apparent in multiformity: various vertical voids flow through the suprastructure.

The landscape concept enhances and strengthens the "green belt'' of the surrounding city. The site's structuring into parallel bands evokes the former urban pattern of the Importhalle, the sales booths and the rail lines that served them.“