KfW Westarkade is a 60.1-meter (197 ft)
office building
An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...
located in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, Germany. The 14-storey building completed in 2010, is located in the
Westend district in Frankfurt and serves as the headquarters for
KfW
The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment bank, investment and Development finance institution, development bank, based in Frankfurt ...
, the German
state-owned
State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...
development bank
A development financial institution (DFI), also known as a development bank or development finance company (DFC), is a financial institution that provides risk capital for economic development projects on a non-commercial basis.
, total commitme ...
. The KfW Westarkade is an example of
sustainable architecture
Sustainable architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings through improved efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, development space and the ecosystem at large. Sustainable ...
, which was led by three key factors,
natural ventilation
Passive ventilation is the process of supplying air to and removing air from an indoor space without using HVAC, mechanical systems. It refers to the flow of external air to an indoor space as a result of pressure differences arising from natural ...
,
activated slabs and
geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pres ...
, and the building is one of the first office towers in the world predicted to run on less than 90
KWh/m2 of primary energy per year.
The KfW Westarkade was named the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States ...
2011 Best Tall Building Overall.
Background
The KfW Westarkade began construction in 2007 following the demolition of the library which had previously sat at the space. The Westarkade contains
conference facilities and office space for 700 people, and served to expand the KfW campus in the area, which includes buildings constructed from the 1970s through to 1990s.
See also
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List of tallest buildings in Frankfurt
The tallest structure in Frankfurt is the Europaturm, which rises however, the observation tower is not generally considered a high-rise building as it does not have successive floors that can be occupied. The tallest habitable building in Fra ...
*
List of tallest buildings in Germany
This is a list of the tallest buildings in Germany that stand at least tall. Only habitable buildings are ranked, which excludes radio masts and towers, observation towers, steeples, chimneys and other tall architectural structures. For those, s ...
*
List of tallest buildings in Europe
This list of tallest buildings in Europe ranks skyscrapers in Europe by height exceeding 190 meters. For decades, only a few major cities, such as Frankfurt, Paris, London and Moscow contained skyscrapers. In recent years, however, construction ...
References
External links
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{{Bankenviertel
Buildings and structures in Frankfurt
Office buildings completed in 2010