Central Administration of «Tüv» - Cologne - West Germany

Abstract

This complex of office buildings and laboratories is made up by two independent! architectural groups which occupy an area of over 40,000 m²: a 28-floor tower with an extensive ground floor basically designed for offices, management departments, administration and research; and on a second plane, a two-storey building for laboratories and shops. Both bodies of construction are connected by means of an underground floor and a covered gallery on ground level. A third group, of lesser importance, is composed by a gasoline station and a dwelling for the watchman, situated next to a broad esplanade with parking facilities for 600 automobiles. The tower is the most attractive nucleus of the group. The dynamism resulting from its irregular floor plan, shaped by arms of different lengths, is heightened by the tapering of the upper stories, finished off at different heights by the gradual suppression of the arms starting from the 17th floor; this contrast of volumes lends the group a dynamic and attractive aspect, emphasized by a treatment of façade in which insulating sheets lined with aluminium and carpentry work with double reflecting glass are combined.