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E verywhere in Germany’s booming large cities, the housing market is dried-up
despite much building activity. Thus the conversion of vacant office towers or
old company headquarters is also increasingly attractive. Nowhere does this apply
as much as in Frankfurt am Main, where office vacancy at 8.3 percent is as the high-
est of all German major office locations. At last count, however, there was noticeably
less vacancy. Numerous conversions contributed to this: For about ten years now,
Frankfurt has been actively encouraging the conversion of offices into living areas.
The results can be seen in the former Niederrad office city, an agglomeration of high-
rise office buildings constructed in the 1960s and 70s – car-friendly, non-structural,
and visibly outdated. Plenty of imagination was needed here to see the potential as
a residential location. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 apartments have been or are
being built. “When you walk around here today, it is a completely different area
from even ten years ago”, Mark Gellert says, Press Officer of the Frankfurt planning
department. Kindergartens, restaurants, supermarkets and other service providers
have moved in. While, in 2010, almost a third of all the offices were vacant, this Bild: Muns, Wikipedia
number has by now decreased by more than half in Niederrad. “Some objects as Bild: bloomimages
well as their building serves are so outdated that they can ultimately no longer be
rented”, Mark Gellert explains. The landlord then has to calculate what is more prof- In Berlin funktionieren Fuchshuber Architekten den ... • In Berlin, Fuchshuber Architekten will be turning ...
itable: demolition and a new building or a general renovation and conversion
according to today’s office standards, or go for apartments. Project developers nowa-
days advertise Niederrad as an “up-and-coming district”. A pilot project in
Niederrad was a long abandoned office tower at Lyoner Straße 19, where 98 residen-
tial units were installed. “There the layouts and ceiling heights suited, which isn’t
always the case in many office buildings”, Gellert describes a frequent problem
since the demands of the two groups of users differ too much. Room depths of more
than 20 metres and long hallways are no problem in open-plan offices but definitely
in apartments where more light and air are needed. Fire protection, soundproofing
and thermal insulation also have to be completely redesigned and often require
expensive modifications. As a rule, the old façades and installations have to be com-
pletely removed and the houses gutted to leave only the shell standing.

Transformation of an office city into a mixed-use zone

This was also the case at Lyoner Straße 19, as Stefan Forster states, the architect of Bild: archlab, Copyright CG Gruppe AG
the conversion. “All that was left was the concrete.” The 15-storey point block had
two levels plus a penthouse added since this made “the proportions more slender
and more elegant”. High-quality panorama windows, which have to ensure high
sound insulation due to the nearby airport, allow views into the distance. The ... „Steglitzer Kreisel“ bis 2021 in einen Wohnturm um. • ... the “Steglitzer Kreisel” into a residential tower.
square layout is ideal. “Had we planned a residential tower from scratch, it would
look similar,” according to Stefan Forster. What resulted are apartments measuring
48 to 160 square metres with flexible layouts. They are arranged around the core in favour of a conversion. This was completed last year and the striking complex
with the staircase and the lift shaft. At the building’s four corners, loggias were of semicircles and circles renamed “Living Circle”. “It is the largest office building
designed so that the residents, unlike the former office users, can step outside. A that has so far been converted into living space in Germany”, Henning Hausmann
dental practice is now on the ground floor, which contributes to the transformation says, the Head of Investment at the Berlin Bauwert project developer. Compared
of an office city into a mixed-use zone. The first successful conversion in Niederrad with the certainly possible demolition and new building, the conversion was hard-
was followed by additional ones in Lyoner Straße and in the neighbourhood. The ly cheaper according to Hausmann. “A conversion always has risks and every sur-
office of Stefan Forster also participates in a current and a planned conversion proj- prise costs, such as knocking down a wall and pipes appearing behind it that are
ect. Other projects have already been implemented, mainly by demolition and new not marked in any plan.” It didn’t s stop at knocking down walls, as Harald
construction. The city provided the prerequisites regarding planning regulations and Wennemar from the Konrath und Wennemar architectural office explains. “With
established two development plans which turn the former industrial park into a the exception of the underground car park, nothing was preserved.” The old cor-
mixed-use zone. Last year and consistent with this, “Bürostadt Niederrad” was offi- porate centre was completely gutted. The circular structures grouped around small
cially renamed “Lyoner Quartier” to emphasize the change. courtyards were preserved. Semi-public green spaces and little gardens could thus
be laid out. The office glass grid façade was replaced with a residential façade with
Vacancy rate lowered – in Düsseldorf as well balconies and openable windows. For the project, Bauwert was awarded the
Bauherrenpreis 2018 in the category “Conversion for living”. Berlin also has a series
The situation in Düsseldorf is similar to the one in Frankfurt. Around 7 percent of of remarkable conversion projects. What currently attracts most attention is the
the office spaces are vacant but here as well vacancy has recently decreased to half plan by Fuchshuber Architekten from Leipzig to convert the 120-metres high
a million square metres. This is in part due to successful letting in the commercial “Steglitzer Kreisel”, one of the highest high-rises in Berlin with 30 floors, into the
sector, yet in part also to conversion into living space: 32,000 square metres alone so-called “ÜBerlin”. The building constructed from 1968 to 1980 had to be vacated
dropped from the statistics because a campus-like company headquarters in the in 2007 due to harmful asbestos and vacant since then. The Berlin CG Gruppe pur-
Flingern district was successfully enlivened: After Thyssen had left its “Trade chased the building and is currently converting it into a residential tower with 329
Center” built in 1991, it was vacant for five years due to its enormous size. Since upscale condominiums. The conversion started this spring and is to be completed
there is a high demand of living space in Düsseldorf as well, an investor decided at the end of 2021.

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