Marcelo Campo

A00820288

COMMERZBANK

This building designed by Foster and partners located in Frankfurt Germany its cataloged as a
sustainable skyscraper. In its time, it was the tallest building in Europe with 259 meters and 56
floors. The building has 121,000 square meters of surface that houses the offices of
Commerzbank. The skyscraper has 9 different gardens at different heights and was designed
with a system of natural light. The construction started in 1994 took three years to be finished.
Its main material is steel, from which more than 18,000 tons of it where used. The project
propose exploring the nature of the office tower and conceiving new ideas about its use and
ecological use.

The final result of this building that followed

strict German laws for the work environment
was a sustainable skyscraper. The 9 gardens it
has, provides a big amount of light to the
inside of the building, and also allows pleasant
views. The design of the facades, creates
natural ventilation throw all the building. It
serves as an example that sustainable
architecture is possible at the scale of a
skyscraper.

The central idea of the building was a natural system of lightning and ventilation, so all offices
can count with natural light and windows that allows to control the environment. The energy
consumption of the Commerzbank, is equivalent to a half of a conventional offices building.

The plan of the building consists of three intertwined

“petals” (office plants) and a central atrium throw all the
building. The 9 winter gardens spiral up throw the patio
and connects the building. In social terms, one of the
purposes of this gardens, was to play the role of town
square of each group of offices and make a place for the
employees to meet and relax during breaks. In
environmental terms, the purpose of the gardens, is to
provide natural light and fresh air to the central atrium of
the building which serves as a chimney of natural
ventilation to the offices facing to the interior.
Marcelo Campo
A00820288

To support the large spans of the gardens, special attention was paid to the structural system of
the building. The triangular shaped floor plan provides the rigid structural support, and at each
corner of it, the cores are located. Here is where the vertical loads rests.

The Financial Times adopted it as a symbol of Frankfurt, as it has been made with Parliament
and the Eiffel Towers as symbols of London and Paris. It has been commemorated with a
serious of awards toward it sustainability.

Here are some sustainability facts:

-The building design responds to prevailing winds and solar orientation to ensure optimum
ventilation and daylight penetration.
-Since 2008, Commerzbank has been supplied only with green energy that is produced from
renewable energy sources.
-Cooling in the building is provided by the chilled ceilings, and heating is from perimeter
heating.
-To reduce water waste, the condensate from the chillers is recycled and used for WC flushing.
-It uses 20% energy less than it was predicted and has been reduction year to year.