Outline Concept
“The existing Grossmarkthalle serves as the entry point and will act as the official foyer. Inside the hall one can feel and see the working structure of the bank. As a ‘Mindship’ the conference areas of the decision-making bodies will be visible within the hall. The old coffee bridges will be transformed into ‘art bridges’.

The bank is laid out as a unifying transparent roof structure, a counterpoise to the strong financial district in the west. The roof structure is the icon of the assembled Europe. It will act as an envelope and give a new façade towards Sonnemannstrasse. Transparency versus the river and the sky is the key word when you are in and outside of the ECB building itself.

The offices beneath the roof have the same scale as the surrounding city. The offices are placed with the thoughts of having great interaction and communication between different office sectors and to promote teamwork. It is an open environment where people can meet, work and have dreams. Everyone will have a view towards the Main and the feeling will be as if you were working almost at the quay. The open communicative forums/multizones offer the possibility to interact between the creative working in groups and personal concentration.

The staff enters constantly into different project and working relationships. The interchange of ideas and inspiration is essential. The resources are utilized optimal and the knowledge is spread around in the house when you have this flexible and interactive environment. There will be no organisational barriers. We want to make it into a place were every thing is simple and unpretentious.

The landscape of the ECB site is thought as The Garden of Europe. Species from all over Europe will be surrounding the bank. The site itself will retain its character as a former industrial ground and the existing cranes will be the image of the past.”