Düsseldorf office is clad in “Europe’s largest green façade”

An office complex has been completed in the centre of Düsseldorf that includes some 30,000 plants in its cladding.

The 41,400 sq m Kö-Bogen II project, designed by local firm Ingenhoven Architects, has the appearance of a green hill in Gründgens Square, between the iconic Dreischeibenhaus and the Düsseldorf Theatre.

Two of the building’s walls and its roof are clad with steel pots, planted with grass and a type of evergreen shrub known as hornbeam. The cladding, which also includes irrigation and drainage systems, was developed in association with the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.

Ingerhoven comments on its website: "The ensemble marks the conclusion of an extensive urban renewal project in the heart of Düsseldorf. It also 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 an urban response to climate change."

According to Ingerhoven, the façade will offer the same benefits to the city centre as 80 deciduous trees.

The completion of Kö-Bogen II marks the end of an ambitious renewal project in the city that has transformed a formerly industrial area dominated by an elevated road into a public space. 

Ingenhoven won the design competition for the building in 2014, and work began in 2017. The developers are Centrum of Düsseldorf and B&L of Hamburg. The façade was designed in association with Werner Sobek of Stuttgart and the structural engineer was Schüßler-Plan Ingenieurgesellschaft of Düsseldorf.

Images courtesy of Ingenhoven Architects / HGEsch