Corporate Architecture: Thyssen Krupp Headquarter

Corporate Architecture: Thyssen Krupp Headquarter. JSWD Architekten’s Q1 Building is an eco-efficient concept certified in the Gold class by DGNB. Designing the headquarters of major industrial groups is increasingly seen as an opportunity to implement sustainable building concepts for cutting CO2 emissions.

The Q1 building in ThyssenKrupp’s headquarters in Essen, Germany, designed by JSWD Architekten of Cologne, is not just an important landmark in a central location in the city but an icon of sustainability with Gold certification from DGNB (a German sustainable building association).

In 2011 the building won an award for its architectural design and technological solutions employing energy-efficient heating and cooling systems: the building’s primary energy requirements are 50% lower than the legal limit for new buildings in Germany, and its ecological footprint is characterised by 27% less CO2 emissions than other similar buildings.

The Q1 Building is the first city office building to have completed the certification cycle, to the great satisfaction of client and architects alike.

Apart from its “green” side, the Q1 Building is the heart of a complex set up like a campus around a big atrium with a glass roof, rising eleven floors upwards to contain various offices linked by suspended ramps and mezzanines.

The building has a very important relationship with the urban landscape around it, favoured by two big windows (26 x 28 metres) overlooking the pool of water in front of it, the key element in the landscaping concept.

The sunshades on the façades play an important role, jutting out beyond the windows like steel feathers, adjustable panels designed to improve lighting and temperature conditions in the offices.

Valuable details forming part of the global concept of “Corporate Architecture” and distinguishing the complex from other centres of power.

Design: JSWD ARCHITEKTEN con Chaix & Morel et Associés,
General Contractor: ECE Projektmanagement G.m.b.H & Co. KG
Client: ThyssenKrupp Real Estate GmbH
Location: Essen, Germany
Photographs: Christian Richters, Michael Wolff, Frener + Reifer / Günter Wett, ThyssenKrupp