Europe’s Largest Green Facade

The project KII, designed by architectural firm Ingenhoven, is the new green hub of Düsseldorf’s city centre. The facade of this office and commercial building is planted with over 30,000 hornbeams – an absolute novelty in Europe. The greenery is an important contribution to improving the microclimate in and around the building: it reduces heat input due to insolation, stores moisture and attenuates noise. In addition, the facade also binds as much CO₂ as 80 large trees.

Werner Sobek was responsible for the entire facade planning for KII. Our tasks also included the planning of the irrigation and drainage as well as the supporting structure for the plant pots. Another special feature was the consideration of the height access planning – all areas of the façade must be accessible on foot in order to maintain the planting. We are delighted to have been involved in the creation of this spectacular green facade – an important basis for further green facade projects in which we are also allowed to participate. A particularly fine example of this: the new Calwer Passage in Stuttgart.

An article about green facades (alas only in German) can be found at: https://www.dabonline.de/2020/06/30/begruente-fassaden-ratgeber-und-beispiele-ingenhoven-tal-koe-bogen-duesseldorf/