Outline Concept
”Location: A partly abandoned industrial region inside of a grown neighborhood with the grand monolith of the Grossmarkthalle as memory.

Subject: Create a unique building inside this area as a symbol and an integrative part of the city. Frankfurt presents itself as the Finance City, symbolized by an agglomeration of high-rises. The European Central Bank has to be more than an important authority in a huge building. The symbol transmits to the same extent the variety and the unity of Europe. More than just a formal building it implies the social components to the staff of the European Central Bank as well as to the public. The market hall as a unique place of meeting and memory originally used to storage and sell fruits and vegetables transforms into the main foyer - a glasshouse planted with palm trees. It is unconditioned; conference hall, restaurant and shops are designed as house-in-house. The separate towers are optimized for the requirements of different office layouts. They are connected through a shared entrance plaza and the skybridge, which houses the conference and restaurant area. The possibility of distance and approach is an important element in the social attitude of humans, why not creating a space of freedom at a unique place?

Landscape: The buildings stand on a big landscape sculpture, which is divided into two parts. A thin water layer, which is permanently in movement by the winds. This water surface is sloping to the Main and changes into a very fine water curtain. An earthform, with embuilted buildings, courts and groups of trees. This form is covered of steppe grass, which permanently moves in the wind."