Colorium
Dusseldorf, Germany
Alsop Architects

A once-industrial harbor finds its future in a new landmark woven with a tapestry of color

© Christian Richters

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By James S. Russell, AIA

To attract image-conscious advertising and media firms to its new "media harbor," the port agency of Dusseldorf offered open sites for new development, explicitly requesting developers to team with architects of international stature. Like other new buildings in the Media Harbor, the Colorium strays far from the rigid norms of American-style speculative office development. For one thing, both client and city wanted an architectural landmark. But London-based Alsop Architects quickly discarded their sculpturally complex initial instincts, bowing to numerous site constraints. The floor plan shrank further when the city mandated a walkway linking the street to a new waterfront pedestrian promenade. (The complying ramp and metal stair are shown in plan, above, but were not completed when photos were taken). It became clear that the client’s space requirements could only be accommodated in a prismatic slab, and then only with the most minimal of vertical cores. The local code permitted a single exit stair with the use of exterior, fire-separated balconies.

The designers turned to graphic means to heighten the tower’s visual impact, overlaying the curtain-wall grid with boldly colored patterns in screen-printed ceramic-frit glass so that the onlooker would perceive an 18-story tapestry, rather than a decorative treatment alternating with bands of glass.

Whether you see Mondrian in its extraordinary walls or a patchwork of nautical burgees, resistance to the Colorium’s appeal is futile. The larger question is: Does sexy design make sensible urban-redevelopment strategy? It’s a little too soon to tell. Earlier projects, especially the Neuer Zollhof complex by Frank Gehry, have attracted international attention and filled with tenants, putting Dusseldorf on the map in a way that traditional economic-development efforts failed to do. But the building is only partly tenanted, which Frohmader attributes to Germany’s sluggish economy.

But it is the very modesty of its scale that allows the Colorium to be expressive without being aggressive. With it’s high-design neighbors, it creates the strong local identity this heterogeneous area lacks. There are lessons here for design-averse American real estate developers.

See the June 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Colorium

Location:
Dusseldorf, Germany

Gross square footage:
1333,000 sq. ft. (aprox. 4,700 per floor)

Owner:
Ibing Immobilien Handel GmbH &
Co.Hochhaus KG
Arnheimer Str. 142
40489 Düsseldorf, Germany
Tel. 0049-211-4087000
Fax. 0049-211-40870019

Architect:
Alsop Architects Ltd., London
Parkgate Studio
41, Parkgate Road
London SW11 4NP U.K.
Tel. 0044-20-79787878
Fax. 0044-20-79787879
mail: info@alsoparchitects.com
www.alsoparchitects.com