This contribution to an urban planning competition for an office area in Cologne literally interprets the theme of the office park. In the tradition of the Flora Köln, a glass-covered plant hall built in 1864, around which public spaces were placed, flora_n presents itself as a hybrid, a synergetic overlap of an office building with a park. The design consists in the proposal for a building regulation (Baunutzungsverordnung), that introduces a “green cubic index” (“Grünmassenzahl GMZ”) transferring the logic of the cubic index (Baumassenzahl BMZ) to green spaces. The GMZ indicates how much green mass must be generated in order to realize a certain building mass. In this scenario, green spaces are no longer only leftover, but become a primary legal parameter for the use of land. The proposal sets one main rule: cubic volume should equal green cubic volume.
Green spaces do not necessarily have to be located outside. Continuing the tradition of the jardin d’hiver and the large greenhouses of the 19th century, greenery comprises different states of vegetation: interior green, intermediate green (sheltered, but exterior), and exterior green (horizontal or vertical). The project flora_n does not limit the deployment of green to decorative elements, but explicitly includes green spaces for commercial use. The site is structured based on a north-south oriented 17.5-meter grid resulting from the standard depth of an office building, and includes vegetative halls and buffer zones. Additional gastronomic, sports, and cultural facilities expand the program of the urban park landscape. flora_n represents a model for an architecture, in which building material is reduced to a carrier structure for plants and trees that become the main space creating matter.
© Brandlhuber+ Team
© b&k+
© Brandlhuber+ Team
© Brandlhuber+ Team
© b&k+
© b&k+