Fortyseven & Co., Frankfurt am Main

Ad­vanc­ing ar­chi­tec­ture by a degree or two instead of taking one’s bear­ings from what happens to be usual; opting for metic­u­lous work and high-qual­ity build­ing ma­te­ri­als to this end rather than flashy effects; looking for unusual so­lu­tions and hence adding to the in­ven­tory of what has hith­erto been fea­si­ble. Think­ing of this kind is not the order of the day in Frank­furt’s banking dis­trict around Mainzer Land­strasse, un­for­tu­nately – the Forty­Seven & Co. office block proves that it is, however, re­al­is­tic. With a façade that is as aes­thet­i­cally ex­tra­or­di­nary as it is tech­ni­cally, the build­ing pro­vides an al­ter­na­tive to the all too often bland office ar­chi­tec­ture in the banking me­trop­o­lis.

The build­ing’s clients Max Baum Im­mo­bilien and Competo Capital Part­ners wanted to have a pres­ti­gious, high-qual­ity struc­ture erected in the midst of in­signif­i­cant office ar­chi­tec­ture. In TEK TO NIK, they found a firm of ar­chi­tects with the courage and will to embrace unusual, design chal­lenges. At­ten­tion is focused on an im­pres­sive façade that helps shape the urban space. The eight-storey office block fea­tures a dec­o­ra­tive lime­stone façade char­ac­terised by the ver­sa­tile in­ter­play of geo­met­ric shapes, pat­terns and shadow effects. The façade is fash­ioned like a chess­board with 8 by 8 floor-to-ceil­ing window panels.

A four-seg­ment en­trance is all that does not fall within this system of struc­tur­ing. The build­ing’s quality and class are, of course, de­signed to be evident both outside and in. Users such as GLS-Bank, who were the first to sign a tenancy agree­ment, have access to premises of between 2,200 and 8,800 square feet. Handles by FSB have been fitted here that, though con­spic­u­ously strong on value, are careful not to hog the lime­light, leaving the façade to take cen­tre-stage.

Photos: Andreas Stim­pert