AXA Versicherungs AG

Frankfurt’s “Westend” district further enriched by  unique design
The Bockenheimer Landstrasse in Frankfurt may not be an ideal boulevard for romantic walks, but it is nevertheless one of the city’s most prestigious addresses. And as a  commercial avenue, it offers business architecture ranging from the post-war period to the post-modern. Jo. Franzke Architects acting on behalf of AXA Real Estate Managers Deutschland GmbH has designed and built an office building here that combines ingenious minimalism with an eyecatching design of startling proportions.
A subsidence problem? The eleven-storey tower of the edifice leans over four degrees from the vertical. The glass cube appears to tilt back into the courtyard behind,  embraced on three sides by an office block that stands perfectly upright in the vertical. The whole thing is neither a “sleight of design” nor indeed a comical allusion by the building owner (an insurance company) to some ruinous structural calamity. In fact, between the tower and its nine-storey perimeter, the funnel-like gap created by the angle of inclination greatly improves the amount of natural light falling upon the offices.
And in other ways, too, the design utilises the architectural art in a minimalist yet particularly effective way. Although the complex rises to eleven storeys and thus goes well beyond the five floors envisaged in the district development plan, its proportional relationship with the structural environment nevertheless remains intact. Retracted, flush and protruding windows provide for an understated subdivision of the granite-clad façade into its base, centre and capital zones. Meanwhile, the interior space of the trapezoidal plot has been intensively cultivated with plants and greenery. Toward the rear can be found a perimeter development of five-storey apartment blocks reminiscent of the villas built in the Westend area during the period of promoterism—Germany’s sudden rush into industrialisation.
The elements of the complex combine to produce a most convincing whole. Among the providers of quality and excellence in detail are numerous products from DORMA: 480 doors were equipped with OGRO lever handles of the ZS 8906 and ZS 8907 series. And the decision for an access control system based on DORMA CODIC-CARD technology throughout the building underlines the high priority placed on ensuring exemplary safety and security. Moreover, this access control system has been particularly elegantly packaged for users of the elevator: the pushbutton is enabled by a CODIC unit integrated by DORMA subsidiary MBB Gelma behind the glass frontage of the lift. The inclined tower is thus not the only uniquely styled special solution in glass to be found on the new AXA premises.

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