Banking on architecture

Architectural Review, The, April, 2004

A recent major competition for the new European Central Bank in Frankfurt provided an intriguing snapshot of current architectural preoccupations.

In February, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced three architects as the winners of a worldwide open architectural competition for the new ECB premises in Frankfurt am Main. The brief stipulated offices for 2500 employees, creating 100 000[m.sup.2] of usable floor space (with the option of extension), located on a former 120 000[m.sup.2] industrial site in the east of Frankfurt. The historical and listed Grossmarkthalle, a trade market designed in the late 1920s by Martin Elsasser, had to be fully integrated into any new design. Notwithstanding the huge scale of the enterprise, the challenge was to design a building which met the requirements of a modern central bank in the twenty-first century servicing a rapidly expanding Euro zone.

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From a shortlist of a dozen firms, Coop Himmelb(l)au (Vienna) were awarded first prize, with ASP Schweger (Berlin) and 54f architekten/Hamzah & Yeang (Darmstadt/Selangor) placed second and third. All three are currently reviewing their designs to take account of client comments and requirements, and once this revision phase is complete (probably this autumn), the ECB will appoint a final winner.

Revealing some remarkable findings about the state of contemporary architecture, the competition entries were assembled by the Deutsches Architektur Museum (DAM) in Frankfurt in a special exhibition which meticulously documented all 71 proposals and followed the design development of the 12 practices that made it into the final round. Entries came from 31 countries and seven continents. Such a strong international resonance must have reminded the jury (among them Messrs Wilford, Christiaanse, and Fuksas) of an equally Herculean selection effort for the Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz redevelopments exactly a decade ago, but it also presented an intriguing opportunity to evaluate a broad cross-section of the best current international architecture.

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Herein lies the real value of the DAM show. Peter Chachola-Schmal and ANP, its curators, did not attempt to structure the exhibition according to region, design traits or similar criteria. Instead, it unpretentiously revealed what contemporary architecture is (or is not) capable of, in terms of urban design, sustainability and form making. Design manoeuvres ranged from reminiscences of Brasilia to the latest manifestations of blob-architecture. Individual schemes celebrated the tower(s), the (im)penetrable wall, the massive beam (straddling the Grossmarkthalle), the flat, closely-knit landscape-carpet, and any number of other geometrical mega-forms (the pyramid or ball) or the informal blob. At least one of each of these variations made it through into the final dozen.

Surprisingly, some notable names did not reach the second phase. These included the fashionable Superdutch contingent OMA (who boldly topped the Grossmarkthalle with three pyramidical structures reminiscent of Giza or the Swiss alps), and UN Studio, who proposed a monolithic capsule more suited to a sci-fi film. SOM abandoned their high-rise tradition and covered most of the site in a thick carpet of buildings which even swallowed the nine-storey high Grossmarkthalle. And finally, Behnisch & Behnisch sculpted a block worthy of Henry Moore or Barbara Hepworth.

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Of the 12 finalists, Helmut Jahn scored highest in the backpedalling stakes by performing a complete volte-face on his first phase design, retreating to the safe haven of past schemes. Instead of the concave arrangement of two towers (as in his recent Deutsche Post building in Bonn, AR August 2003), here Jahn opted for a convex order. The jury commented dryly that this would 'not create a unique building for the ECB'.

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Frank Gehry's liberal interpretation of what might be described as a 'European village' took the form of a riot of low-level buildings and disparate masses which ultimately got lost in a confusion of uncoordinated surfaces. The young partnership of Barkow Leibinger took a different approach with their perforated highrise running parallel to the Grossmarkthalle. This modular ensemble of alternating sky gardens and office blocks is a lively concept with an interesting future.

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The three prizewinners' schemes were all very different. Schweger (placed second) appears the most 'corporate', with its simple verticality and horizontal bridges between the towers. Though functional, it may be considered too tame and measured to win. Ken Yeang's joint venture with Johann Eisele of 54f architekten proved constructive and intriguing, addressing issues of sustainability, but did not have the formal punch of the winning Coop Himmelb(1)au design.

WolfPrix's team (in collaboration with structural engineer Klaus Bollinger and services engineer Brian Cody from Arup Berlin) has so far convinced the ECB with its integrated and interesting play of volumes. A groundscraper runs between the skyscraper and the Grossmarkthalle linking the ensemble in a way that is more than simply symbolic. Naturally ventilated offices and an atrium round off the structure. Yet though Coop Himmelb(1)au won on the merits of their bold form and engagement with energy conservation, it remains to be seen whether the Viennese provocateurs will be able to sustain a sufficient level of innovation to finally secure the ECB appointment later this year.