Architect: ingenhoven architects, Düsseldorf
Client: Düsseldorf Schadowstraße 50/52 GmbH & Co. KG CENTRUM Projektentwicklung GmbH, Düsseldorf and B&L Group, Hamburg
Location: Düsseldorf, Germany

Team ingenhoven architects: Christoph Ingenhoven, Peter Jan van Ouwerkerk, Cem Uzman, Mehmet Congara, Ben Dieckmann, Patrick Esser, Vanessa Garcia Carnicero, Yulia Grantovskikh, Tomoko Goi, Olga Hartmann, Jakob Hense, Melike Islek, Fabrice-Noel Köhler, Christian Monning, Daniel Pehl, Andres Pena Gomez, Peter Pistorius, Lukas Reichel, Jürgen Schreyer, Susana Somoza Parada, Jonas Unger, Nicolas Witsch, Dariusz Szczygielski, Stefan Boenicke, Thanh Dang
Project management: AIP Bauregie GmbH, Düsseldorf
Structural planning: Schüßler- Plan Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Düsseldorf
Development plan: Heinz Jahnen Pflüger – Stadtplaner und Architekten Partnerschaft, Aachen
Geotechnical consulting: ICG Düsseldorf GmbH & Co. KG
Facade planning – green facades and green roofs: ingenhoven architects
Phytotechnology – building greenery: Prof. Dr. Strauch, Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Department of Life Sciences and Technology
Consultation on vegetation ecology: Prof. Dr. Reif, Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg, Chair of Site Classification and Vegetation Science

Sustainability certificate: DGNB Platinum pre – certificate, supergreen®

Photos: © ingenhoven architects / HGEsch

Description:

Kö-Bogen II, Düsseldorf – Europe’s Biggest Green Facade

8 kilometres of hornbeam hedges, over 30,000 plants – Europe’s biggest green facade is a key element of the Kö-Bogen II commercial and office building – The ensemble marks the conclusion of an extensive urban renewal project in the heart of Düsseldorf.

Kö-Bogen II represents a paradigm shift: from an urban perspective, it signals a departure from the automotive era and a turn towards people oriented planning. And with Europe’s largest green facade, it offers a forward-thinking urban response to climate change. Giving back as much green as possible to the city is a task that ingenhoven architects have been working on for decades and across different climate zones. With its supergreen® concept, the office is taking a comprehensive approach to sustainability.

Today, at the site where an elevated motorway dominated the landscape until 2013, the Hofgarten has moved back into the heart of the city. The composition of Kö-Bogen’s dynamic green facades was inspired by Land Art. They enable the new building complex to oscillate in a deliberate indeterminacy between city and park, and open up the view to icons of post-war modernism – the clear austerity of the Dreischeibenhaus [1960] and the buoyant lightness of the Schauspielhaus [1970], whose renovation was also undertaken by ingenhoven architects. Kö-Bogen II is a contemporary answer to these two historic landmarks, confident without being overbearing.

A variety of uses – retail, gastronomy, offices, and recreation – come together on a gross floor area of 42,000 square metres. Measuring 27 metres high and 120 metres long, the facade of the main building along Schadowstrasse – one of the busiest shopping streets in Germany – is completely glazed. Expanded metal slats structure the interior, varying in transparency from closed to open, depending on the perspective. The other facades including the roof are more tempered and planted with 8 kilometres of hornbeam hedges. The accessible sloping roof of the 10-metre-high building opposite is also completely green and invites visitors to relax and take in the sun.

Eight kilometres of hornbeam hedges
The hornbeam was chosen as a native hardwood, and the selected varieties keep their leaves in winter. This greenery improves the city’s microclimate – it protects against the sun’s rays in summer and reduces urban heat, binds carbon dioxide, stores moisture, absorbs noise, and supports biodiversity. The ecological benefit of the hornbeam hedges equals that of approximately 80 fully grown deciduous trees.