Following the suspension of the previous project, the Swiss Artisa Group acquired the urban element for the “City Pop” residential complex and commissioned ATP architects engineers to revise the existing design and to provide architectural and structural engineering services and object monitoring services for the basement. The special location – adjacent to the Westhafen and parallel to the railway embankment – demands a unique architectural concept that does justice to the building’s role as the starting point of the quarter and acts as both an urban perimeter and a sound barrier.
“The Wall”
The two high-rise slabs are conceived as a wall that protects the quarter. Due to their protective acoustic function, the northeast facades only have small windows, whose arrangement recalls the notes of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” This musical motif continues on the dynamically rounded north and south facades. This sculptural effect is emphasized by the clear differentiation between the circulation cores with their strip windows and the white color of the main volume.
The separation of the building from the busy railway tracks was a particular challenge to the structural engineers. The vibration characteristics of the building ensemble were optimized by a series of special measures that include shock prevention mats, a composite pile-raft foundation, and hollow slabs.
Resource-friendly and energy-efficient
Improvements to the thermal insulation of the building envelope and the efficiency of the building services will minimize the CO₂ footprint of the complex during the operating phase, enabling the building standard to be raised to KfW 55 EE. The building services solution includes such resource-friendly, energy-efficient measures as heat pumps, which supply the complex with heating and warm water and are located on the roof of the communal pavilion.
Urban living in modern micro-apartments
The housing complex consists of two apartment buildings of 10 and 11 stories that are connected by a bridge and offer a total of 342 micro-apartments and two single-story pavilions containing communal spaces and a bicycle store. During the revision of the design, the building was adapted to meet the needs of its new user. This process included the spatial-functional optimization of the plans, an increase in the number of units from 333 to 342, and an enlargement of the rooftop terraces that will improve the quality of experience for residents and visitors. In addition to this, the parapets in the apartments were lowered in order to increase daylight levels.
