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Kö-Bogen Germany

Projektdaten

Bezeichnung	Kö-Bogen
Herausforderung	Inner-city construction project with a sophisticated design

Düsseldorf’s Kö-Bogen, which aims to establish a pedestrian-friendly link between the parkland of the Hofgarten (Court Garden) and busy shopping streets, is pursuing a design strategy that marks a “reverting-back to historical aspects of the inner-city”. This large-scale redesign is being made possible by the construction of a central metro line that does away with above-ground traffic routes and hubs.

New York architect Daniel Libeskind has drawn up the plans for the central building complex of the Kö-Bogen. His design envisages a bipartite building arc with a striking, articulated façade of glass, light-coloured natural stone and greened expanses of façades and roofs. The new building complex is open to flexible use and provides space for restaurants, retailing and office units.

Leaving aside the logistical feats involved in serving an inner-city construction project, what makes the building fabric different is its sophisticated design. Since the beginning of work on the building fabric for the underground parking garage, our German affiliate has been supplying the site with the formwork materials as the need arises. Because of the confined space on the site, the underground garage is being built with a combination of precast elements (roughly 75% of the slabs and staircase cores) and cast-in-place concrete. This streamlines the timing of the construction process, but requires precise advance planning and the extremely exact dovetailing of all construction activities. In close coordination with the site, we develop the required formwork, support and access solutions and bring the necessary materials to the site. The striking architecture of the buildings and the special logistical challenges of the project demand the extremely detailed planning of all formwork assignments alongside the construction process.