Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), in collaboration with Holger Meyer Architekten, has won the competition for the new Midstad project in Frankfurt. Led by Joost Moolhuijzen and Erik Volz, the design reimagines the future of European city centers as resourceful and multifunctional. The project involves a 35,000 m² rehabilitation of an existing department store on the Zeil in Frankfurt's city center, integrating a six-story mass timber extension and a mixed-use, community-driven program. The project involves reconstruction during ongoing operation, partial demolition, and the expansion of the existing department store.
The Midstad Frankfurt project aims to transform the inner-city location of 'Östliche Zeil' by addressing urban, economic, and cultural needs. The new space will combine shopping, leisure, work, dining, entertainment, sports, culture, commercial apartments, and education under one roof. The goal is to convert the existing six-story, monofunctional 1980s department store, Weltstadthaus Peek & Cloppenburg, into a ten-story, multi-use complex. The design preserves three retail floors while adding two 'playground' levels, a two-form entry elementary school on the fifth floor, 56 long-stay apartments, and office and conference spaces on the upper floors.
A key aspect of the transformation is improving the building's permeability and accessibility. New entrances will be added from Reiffensteinplatz and Reineckstrasse, with a light-filled passageway connecting two courtyards. Visitors will be able to navigate the building using either escalators or glass elevators. The building's volume will be fragmented to create a more open, light-filled structure, replacing the closed-off design of the existing department store. The main north façade on Zeil will feature a transparent wood-and-glass screen, offering views into the building's interior, including cultural spaces, co-working areas, and children's facilities, with a prominent two-story multifunctional hall at its center.
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Exploring the Paul Klee Center by Renzo Piano Building Workshop Through Katerina Skarka's PhotographyMidstad Frankfurt is a renovation project that seeks to transform an existing city-center building into a flexible, mixed-use complex, contributing to the revitalization of the downtown area. According to Midstad's real estate managers, the project demonstrates how urban spaces can be revitalized through adaptable utilization concepts. The developers emphasize that multifunctional buildings capable of evolving with the changing needs of urban visitors and residents can help revitalize city centers. RPBW's design plans embody this vision, showcasing how European cities can be renewed through needs-based planning.
Mixed-use architecture is a key strategic instrument for urban renewal in large cities. Several renowned architecture firms are engaged in similar projects worldwide, including Valerio Olgiati, with his three red concrete towers in Tirana; Gensler, with an office conversion project in New York City; and Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), with the remodeling of the HSBC Tower in London. These projects align with broader initiatives to reclaim downtown areas, repurpose disused land, and renovate large-scale underutilized buildings, such as the General Motors and Bedrock redevelopment of Detroit's Renaissance Center and the regeneration of the Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks in London.
