Cologne, Germany

The German-born American painter Josef Albers saw color as pivotal in differentiating between 'optical and physical perception' on canvas. In three-dimensional architecture, color also changes mood, alters perception, and liberates or reduces volume. The Berlin-based firm Sauerbruch Hutton, founded in 1989, has used color intuitively in all of its projects, from the 1999 expansion and renovation of the GSW Headquarters in Berlin to the prizewinning Brandhorst Museum in Munich, completed in 2008. Early on, principals Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton realized that simple and relatively inexpensive applications of color could help transcend the confines of the site. And they discovered that 'color families,' which they often refer to, could be used as another design tool. The Oval Offices in Cologne are no exception to their portfolio.

The offices — two distinct, amoeba-shaped buildings — sit on four acres of parklike land beside the Rhine River and are wrapped in 5,000 red and green glass louvers. The six-story Festland House and the seven-story Ufer House complement the surrounding leafy landscape. The louvers appear to subtly change color depending on their angle and the weather. Over the last 20 years Cologne’s business district has developed outward from the city center around its Gothic cathedral to form a string of unspectacular business headquarters along both banks of the Rhine. The Oval Offices are a contrast here, in aesthetics and energy conservation.

The project is the first in Cologne to earn an EU GreenBuilding certificate, one of the initiatives of the European Commission’s 2004 GreenBuilding Programme, which aims to encourage owners of nonresidential buildings to specify more energy-efficient technologies. Hutton says this success is partly due to a particularly supportive client, Munich Ergo AssetManagement, and an open-minded project manager, Burkhard Klother. It also made economic sense. The real estate market in Cologne is highly competitive and green building is an important selling point. The buildings are designed to consume approximately 31,700 BTUs per square foot per year of primary energy, which is less than half the power used in many of the conventional, neighboring air-conditioned offices.

This is largely achievable due to passive climate-control systems. The heating and cooling system pumps Rhine River water, with an average temperature of 61 degrees, through a heat exchanger, which, in turn, regulates water temperature in a closed pipe system embedded in the floor slabs. Rainwater from the site is directly channeled back into the river, shortcutting the usual route through the city’s often overloaded drainage and wastewater treatment system.

The facades are made up of full-height windows and fixed panels of insulated, double-glazed units. Occupants can open windows for ventilation and vertical, finlike glass louvers provide shade. (They are computer-operated but can be manually overridden by control panels in each office.) Roof gardens on both buildings insulate the structure and boost the microclimate’s oxygen supply, in addition to offering bird’s-eye views of the river and city.

The 463,000 gross square feet of flexible space accommodates a total of 1,700 workstations. At press time the project team was completing final punch-list items at Ufer, and Festland was fully occupied. The offices all have access to two of the three vertical circulation cores. Reinforced concrete columns rise from a 242-car underground garage, divided between the two buildings, to support the roof, while smaller circumference columns act as hangers for the suspended floor plates. This configuration makes for open layouts and uninterrupted views to the surrounding landscape.

Ceiling treatments help define programmatic zones. A circulation spine that runs through the daylight-filled workspaces has a dropped ceiling. Cloudlike suspended ceiling “fingers” of hand-molded plaster and resin branch out from the spine and hover over the workstations. Each finger conceals lighting, mechanical ventilation, and a sprinkler system.

Technical and practical features are translated into unique art objects, like the bull’s-eye lighting fixtures, touch screen technology hidden behind colored glass walls in the elevators and elevator lobbies, and unobtrusive wall-mounted glass tablets in offices for climate and security control. All details complement the buildings’ undulate exterior, which makes every office space unique.

The project has achieved a high level of environmental efficiency. Ultimately, however, it is the attention to form, detail, color, and space that makes the Oval Offices so successful.

Location: Cologne, Germany

Completion Date: June 2010

Gross square footage: 463,000 sq.ft.

Construction cost: $116 million

People

Owner
DKV Deutsche Krankenversicherung,
represented by MEAG MUNICH ERGO AssetManagement GmbH

Architect:
Sauerbruch Hutton
Lehrter Strasse 57
10557 Berlin
Germany
phone +49 30 397 821 -0
fax   +49 30 397 821 -30

Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Matthias Sauerbruch, Prof. Dipl. Ing., AA Dipl., ARB, Louisa Hutton, BA (Hons), AA Dipl., RIBA
Juan Lucas Young, UBA Dipl., Architect

Jens Ludloff, Claudia Sieper, Wilhelm Jouaux, Jürgen Bartenschlag, Tom Geister, Angelika Fehn-Krestas, Markus Pfeifer, Frank Anaker, Stefan Fuhlrott, Stephanie Heese, Tanja Kausch-Löchelt, Lina Lahiri, Claus Mannsbrügge, Konrad Opitz, Peter Rieder, Maria Saffer

Engineer(s)
Structural engineering:
Ingenieurgemeinschaft AWD Agne-Wahlen-Daubenbüchel
contact: Arne Huth
Schoeneberger Strasse 15
10963 Berlin
Germany
phone +49 30 235 114 -15
fax   +49 30 235 114 -44

HVAC:
ZWP Ingenieur-AG
contact: Ruediger Lemke, Wolfgang Kroll
Buelowstrasse 66
10783 Berlin
Germany
phone +49 30 75 50 08 -0
fax   +49 30 75 50 08 -99

Consultant(s)
Landscape:
Weidinger Landschaftsarchitekten
contact: Prof. Juergen Weidinger
Wilhelmstrasse 118
10963 Berlin
Germany
phone +49 30 288 86 48 -0
fax   +49 30 288 86 48 -99

Lighting:
ag Licht
Ges. beratender Ing. fuer Lichtplanung
contact: Klaus Adolph
Dechenstrasse 12
53115 Bonn
Germany
phone +49 228 908 98 -0
fax   +49 228 908 98 -29

Acoustical:
Müller-BBM GmbH
contact: Thomas Goldammer
Schoeneberger Strasse 15
10963 Berlin
Germany
phone +49 30 21 79 75 -20
fax   +49 30 21 79 75 -35

Energy concept:
Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH
contact: Stefanie Reuss 
Curiestrasse 2
70563 Stuttgart
Germany
phone +49 711 679 76 -0
fax   +49 711 679 76 -11

Project management:
Drees & Sommer
contact: Katrin Nolte
Guerzenichstrasse
50667 Koeln
Germany
phone +49 221 130 50 -0
fax   +49 221 130 50 -155

Photographer(s)
© Jan Bitter
Jan Bitter Fotografie
Prenzlauer Allee 222
10405 Berlin
Germany
phone/fax +49 30 25 29 86 83
mobile    +49 163 728 26 73
post@janbitter.de

© Constantin Meyer
Constantin Meyer Architekturphotographie
Lichtstrasse 28
50825 Köln
Germany
phone  +49 0221 93 11 951 -7
fax    +49 0221 93 11 951 -8
mobile +49 172 567 50 70
cm@constantin-meyer.de

CAD system, project management, or other software used:
MicroStation

 

Products

Structural system
Concrete
Wolff & Mueller Bau GmbH
Siegburger Strasse 183-187
50679 Koeln
Germany

Manufacturer of any structural components unique to this project:
Terrazzo / Concrete, stairs, parapet
R. Bayer Betonsteinwerk GmbH
Dr.-Georg-Spohn-Strasse 21
89143 Blaubeuren
Germany

Exterior cladding
Metal/glass curtain wall:
Dobler Metallbau GmbH
Hansastrasse 15
80686 München
Germany

Other cladding unique to this project:
Color glass louvres
STEINDL GLAS GMBH
Brixentaler Strasse 1
6305 Itter
Austria

Roofing
Concrete
Wolff & Müller Bau GmbH
Siegburger Strasse 183-187
50679 Koeln
Germany

Elastomeric:
Liquid seal
Enke-Werk, Johannes Enke GmbH & Co. KG
Hamburger Strasse 16
40221 Duesseldorf
Germany

Bitumen
Oprema-Klewa GmbH
Mallaustrasse 51
68219 Mannheim
Germany

Windows
Aluminium frames:
Dobler Metallbau GmbH
Hansastrasse 15
80686 München
Germany
product: www.schueco.com

Glazing
Glass:
Saint-Gobain Glass Deutschland GmbH
Viktoriaallee 3-5
52066 Aachen
Germany

Skylights:
Saint-Gobain Glass Deutschland GmbH
Viktoriaallee 3-5
52066 Aachen
Germany

Other:
Color glass louvres (firm also mentioned under exterior cladding)
Steindl Glas GMBH
Brixentaler Strasse 1
6305 Itter
Austria

Doors
Metal / Glass Doors:
Jaeger Ausbau GmbH + Co KG Leipzig
Baumeisterallee 32-36
04442 Zwenkau
Germany

Wood doors:
Jaeger Ausbau GmbH + Co KG Leipzig
Baumeisterallee 32-36
04442 Zwenkau
Germany

Fire-control doors, security grilles:
Jaeger Ausbau GmbH + Co KG Leipzig
Baumeisterallee 32-36

04442 Zwenkau
Germany

Revolving doors
TORMAX I Landert Motoren AG
Unterweg 14
8180 Buelach
Switzerland

Hardware
Pulls:
HAFI Beschlaege GmbH
Weissinger Strasse 16
89275 Elchingen
Germany

Interior finishes
Acoustical ceilings:
Finger-shaped canopies
Formglas Inc.
contact: Richard Samson
2 Champagne Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M3J 2C5

Cabinetwork and custom woodwork:
Jaeger Ausbau GmbH + Co KG Leipzig
Baumeisterallee 32-36
04442 Zwenkau
Germany

Paints and stains:
Sto AG
Ehrenbachstrasse 1
79780 Stuehlingen
Germany

Paneling:
Plaster boards
Lafarge Gips GmbH
Frankfurter Landstrasse 2-4
61440 Oberursel
Germany

Floor and wall tile (used in all toilets):
Koninklijke Mosa bv
Meerssenerweg 358
6224 AL Maastricht
P.O. Box 1026
6201 BA Maastricht
Netherlands

Carpet:
Toucan-T Carpet Manufacture GmbH
St. Toeniser Strasse 84
47803 Krefeld
Germany

Special interior finishes unique to this project:
Finger-shaped canopies (firm also mentioned under acoustical ceilings)
Formglas Inc.
contact: Richard Samson
2 Champagne Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M3J 2C5

Furnishings
Reception furniture:
Fesk Tischlerei GmbH
contact: Lutz Franke
Zum Schneider Feld 27
51467 Bergisch Gladbach
Germany

Lighting
Interior ambient lighting:
Siteco Beleuchtungstechnik GmbH
Georg-Simon-Ohm-Strasse 50
83301 Traunreut
Germany

Downlights:
Spittler Lichttechnik GmbH
Stapelner Strasse 1 + 3
38644 Goslar
Germany

Exterior:
RSL Rodust und Sohn Lichttechnik GmbH
Tannenweg 1-3
53757 Sankt Augustin
Germany

Dimming System or other lighting controls:
Zumtobel Licht GmbH
Europark Fichtenhain A 13a
47807 Krefeld
Germany

Inteligentenvironmental control:
Berker GmbH & Co. KG
Contact: Ingo Jung
Klagebach 38
58579 Schalksmühle
Germany

Conveyance
Elevators/Escalators:
Haefelein & Windeck
Dorotheenstrasse 241
53119 Bonn
Germany