In the heart of Germany’s densely populated North Rhine-Westphalia, the city of Düsseldorf — which also serves as the region’s capital — boasts an economic engine that belies its seemingly modest urban scale. Along with nearby Cologne, Essen and Dortmund, Düsseldorf forms a hub of 18 million inhabitants, though its own architectural fabric reflects an understated character, befitting a town of some 600,000 residents. Yet, the orderly, rational street wall of mid-rise buildings has a few surprises in store. Case in point? An x-shaped, ruby-red complex designed by .
Situated in the middle of an expansive courtyard block in the city’s centre, the 21,000-square-metre office building — dubbed Curve — injects a sinuous note into the streetscape. While the six-storey form (and top floor setback) sensitively extends a well-established urban scale, the building’s whimsical form carves out a new civic space, expanding the sidewalk to the scale of a pocket park. While part of the massing is pushed deeper into the block, the move is paired with an extrusion into the courtyard, where a pair of new volumes were inserted around existing built form.
Meeting the inner courtyard’s more intimate scale, the rear volumes are distinguished by a more pronounced upper level setback, which carves out a pleasantly tranquil rooftop amenity terrace for employees. Replacing a former parking lot, the mid-block addition is ameliorated by a ring of greenery at its base. Meanwhile, the street-fronting central form is also animated by a café, and a tall, transparent ground floor that invites in pedestrians and passerby.
Although the complex introduces vehicle parking — both at surface and in a two-level garage — the building’s footprint is anchored by usable space, presenting a stark contrast to North American mid-rises .
Moreover, the centralized circulation plan congregates activity at the heart of the building; a porous lobby that opens out to both the street and the courtyard, as well as the stairs and elevators.
For the Cologne- and Berlin-based design team at JSWD — a firm mostly known for its civic and institutional work across Germany — the Curve complex is a hybrid of urban fabric and aesthetic iconography. While the building’s simple, almost Miesian grid of columns and windows speaks to surrounding architectural scales, the curved form and bold red hue create an unapologetically contemporary presence.
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