Commerzbank. Frankfurt.

Foster and Partners.

Bill Chan
#00064012

The new headquarters for Commerzbank in Frankfurt is the world’s tallest

ecological high-rise tower. In May of 1992 Foster and Partners was announced,
in a closed competition where Commerzbank placed radical environmental
design parameters,1 winner with a prototype of some of the most inventive and
technically sophisticated energy strategies utilized in office construction this
century. The design addressed sustainability issues such as: ambient energy
used as much as possible to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels by an
innovative façade and building system that uses natural ventilation; maintaining
health and happiness for the users by daylighting office space and allowing them
to enjoy the outdoors by operable windows and planted sky gardens; recycling
gray water for cooling and sanitary purposes; and community and connection
through careful scaling of relationships with street and surrounding
neighbourhood. The consideration of these issues reflected by the different
building components will be discussed, analyzed and commented on. The
Commerzbank headquarters was the first skyscraper to seriously take
sustainability into consideration and to allow it to form the basis of the building’s
design; the prototype’s success or failure will influence how ‘green’ skyscrapers
will be in the future.

Daylighting and Sky Gardens

The building’s structural layout is

closely integrated with the spatial qualities
of the office and garden. 2Commerzbank
has a rounded equilateral triangular plan.
The three apexes house the main
reinforced concrete and steel columns as well the service and elevator shafts.
The three sections on each arm of the plan are reserved for office space and one
section devoted to the sky garden at every floor. This leaves a central triangular
atrium in the middle that run the height of the building, only separated by steel
and glass diaphragms every twelve floors. The atriums serve as the airshafts that
connect airflow between sky gardens. Each twelve floor “village” is further divided
into sections of four floors. Each section
holds a four level high open sky garden
that changes orientation from one arm of
the triangle to the next at every section,
spiraling the height of the building until it
reaches the top of the building on the 60th
floor.
This sky gardens allow daylight to strike the interior face of each office
wing, meeting the German building code requiring that all workers be no further
than 7.5 meters from a window. Light spills into every interior space of every floor
and each place has a view to match. Looking out of the exterior face from the
offices, large windows not only allows light and ventilation to enter, but invites
views into the culturally well-preserved city of Frankfurt from the tallest building in
Europe. From the office space looking towards
the interior atrium of the building, your eye is
drawn to the greenery of the sky gardens
above and below. More views of the city lie
beyond the glass wall that encloses the sky
gardens, with operable windows on the top of
the walls that allow cross breezes. The light,
views and ventilation made possible by the
building’s original steel frame design has come
a long way from the glass boxes typical of American skyscrapers that deprive
occupants from natural light and air. The design has also made the column free
sky gardens possible.
 The freedom of structural columns in the gardens expresses a new and
animated form of office management where workers experience a less
hierarchical system by sharing the same spaces as
their peers. The office partitions are made of glass;
encouraging the dissolution of psychological barriers
between co-workers. 3The sky gardens are planted
with live trees and plants, and depending on the
cardinal orientation of the garden, will house either
species native to North America, Asia, or the
Mediterranean. These gardens act as outdoor places
and function as public spaces: people confer, eat
lunch, drink coffee, or simply pause for thought. The
community created by the common sky gardens is
one of familiarity and intimacy. 4The director of Commerzbank’s Central Building
Department is satisfied when they are given praise when office workers of the
building leave at night and tell them they don’t feel tired.
Commerzbank is revolutionary for taking aggressive initiative to make the
skyscraper more comfortable for its occupants and ecologically friendlier to the
environment. The energy reductions are largely contributed by natural ventilation
instead of air-conditioning made possible by the innovative design of the
Klimafassade.

The Klimafassade

5
Translated as the climate façade, it is a custom made double skin
envelope system that mediates the weather between the interior and exterior of
the building. It is also this innovative design that allows for individuals to control
their surroundings by operable windows and a sunshade system. This invention
allows natural ventilation to be viable in a skyscraper. It is composed of a solid
pane of laminated glass on the outer layer, which deflects strong winds and rain.
Followed by a 165mm ventilation cavity that houses a motorized 50mm Venetian
blind that either shades or deflects solar rays. The inner layer, a low-e double-
glazed unit that is bottom hinged and opens inwards at the top, is the motorized
operable window controlled by either individuals or can be overridden by the
tower’s electronic building management system (BMS). Based on the preset
interior temperature limits (27oC max. in summer and 5oC min in winter) as well
as wind, solar intensity and humidity measurements from weather stations
throughout the building, the BMS will decide the level of control the building’s
occupants will have over windows and blinds. This will prevent complications of
uneven air pressure, overheating, condensation, etc. To minimize the noise
generated when air moves through the space on the top and bottom of the fixed
outer layer, special aerodynamic transoms allow silent natural ventilation to
occur.
Although this innovative double skin system has been tested rigorously in
extensive computer studies, no one knows quite how the whole thing will work.
For instance, there will be times when the cavity air will be warmer than the
atmosphere of the office within – the convection effect should still work to
ventilate the interior, but will there be unforeseen circumstances?

Community and Connection

6
The Commerzbank headquarters’ rigorous integration of environmentally
responsible technologies was a product of the unique political and economic
climate in the 1990s when the city was governed by a coalition of Social
Democrats and “Green,” who resisted large-scale development in the city’s
historic center. However, when they finally bowed down to the economic
pressure from the banks, they did not hesitate to impose a range of requirements
to make tall buildings not only more sustainable, but more acceptable within the
cityscape.
The base of the Commerzbank headquarters was directly in the middle of
a low-scale neighbourhood which the government required their careful
consideration. 7The base of the tower had to be wrapped with a seven-story
structure containing shops, housing, a 500-seat auditorium and parking spaces
for 300 cars and 200 bicycles so that it will preserve the old urban fabric.
To minimize the visual and shading impact on the neighboring and original
Commerzbank headquarters across the street, the orientation of the new building
had to be cleverly orientated; with the south-west vertex facing the 60’s slab
tower so that light may reach it and at the same time opening up views for it. On
the other hand, the dark gray somber monolith will also be less of an impression
to the new building’s occupants since the sky gardens at those elevations will not
face directly at it but into the horizon of the city.
To fit into the city’s horizon, however, called for the design of the building
to be more transparent. The original concept was a building that evoked
abstractions of transparency coupled with the greenery of hanging sky gardens.
The impracticality in planting on the outside of the building removed the hint to
viewers that the building housed suspended gardens. Although the building’s
skin utilized glass that was radar
permeable, 8the overall impression
of the building during the day had
critics calling it too massive and
dominating, less crystalline and
transparent than in early
renderings, and an arrogant
fortress for an elite class. Later
lighting of the building improved
the transparency of the structure at
night, blending beautifully with the
surrounding night-scape of
Frankfurt.
Thermal and Mechanical Systems

What kind of mechanical systems will exist in a skyscraper that primarily

uses natural ventilation for heating and cooling of the building? 9Conventional
perimeter radiators under the floor supply heat when needed and perforated
metal ceiling houses a water filled pipe cooling system that is the backup to the
operable windows. Mechanical ventilation ducts remain small because it is only
used to supply fresh air during conditions of intense cold, rain or stormy weather
when operable windows cannot be opened.

Whatever mechanical system the building needs, the designers kept tried
to keep environmental impact as low as possible. Additional environmentally
oriented features include washrooms supplied only with cold water and toilets
flushed with “gray” water from the cooling towers. As well as fire stairwells
finished with second cuts of granite, economically upgrading their appearance
and encouraging their use.

In conclusion, the building nevertheless was the first skyscraper to

seriously address all of the ecological and social issues that required innovative
designs in building skin and ventilation systems that sacrificed a large profit
margin for a more sustainable design. For instance, the building would have
been significantly cheaper if it was built of reinforced concrete, but concrete
columns would have distracted the sky gardens’ views. So the clients were
willing to spend more of their money to the delight of their employees. It might
still be too soon to know if Commerzbank will be the “workplace of the future,”
leading others to take the next step. But naturally ventilated double curtain walls
are appearing on numerous projects now, for example. So the trend, like the
trend for architecture of the future in general, is towards a more sustainable
design. Finding beauty in the environmental viability inherent in the design of a
sustainable building.

1
Architectural Review. Volume CCII, No.1205, July 1997. High Expectations. Peter Davey. p. 26-
39
2
Lighting Up Commerzbank.
http://www.architectureweek.com/cgibin/awimage?dir=2000/0913&article=design_1-
1.html&image=11124_image_1.jpg
3
Architectural Record. Volume 186, No. 1, Jan 1998. With its naturally ventilated skin and
gardens in the sky, Foster and Partners’ Commerzbank reinvents the skyscraper. Pg 68-79.
4
Architectural Record, Jan 1998
5
Davies, Ian Lambot. Commerzbank Frankfurt: Prototype of an Ecological high-rise.
Surrey, UK 1997
6
Architectural Record, Jan 1998
7
ibid
8
ibid
9
Architect’s Journal, The. Volume 202, No. 7, Feb 1997. Banking on Ventilation. Pg 36-39

Bibliography

Architectural Review. Volume CCII, No.1205, July 1997. High Expectations.

Peter Davey. p. 26-39

Lighting Up Commerzbank.
http://www.architectureweek.com/cgibin/awimage?dir=2000/0913&article=design
_1-1.html&image=11124_image_1.jpg
Architectural Record. Volume 186, No. 1, Jan 1998. With its naturally ventilated
skin and gardens in the sky, Foster and Partners’ Commerzbank reinvents the
skyscraper. Pg 68-79

Davies, Ian Lambot. Commerzbank Frankfurt: Prototype of an Ecological high-

rise.Surrey, UK 1997

Architect’s Journal, The. Volume 202, No. 7, Feb 1997. Banking on Ventilation.
Pg 36-39

Urban Land. Volume 60, No. 6, June 2001. Ten Shades of Green. Pg 74

GA Document. No. 53. Dec 1997. Norman Foster. Pg 52-61