Kaiserquartier | Cologne

The Kaiserquartier project development site is located in the Cologne-Porz district at an urban interface. To the north runs the heterogeneously shaped Kaiserstrasse, which forms an east-west connection between the A59 freeway – with its connection to Cologne-Bonn airport – and the Porz S-Bahn station. To the north of Kaiserstraße is a residential area consisting of rows of detached multi-family houses. To the east and south of the site are large-scale retail and commercial areas. A depot for e-buses is to be built in the near future on the adjacent brownfield site to the south, which is owned by the Cologne public transport company. To the west of the site to be planned, the railroad line forms an urban planning caesura.

Location description

The Porz district is located in the southeast of Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine. The borough comprises 16 districts with a total of around 115,000 inhabitants. As a formerly (until 1974) independent city, Porz developed as early as the mid-19th century into an important location for up-and-coming, large-scale industrial enterprises.

The Quarter

In the Kaiserquartier developed by CG Elementum in the Cologne-Porz district, a variety of modern spaces for offices, commerce, gastronomy as well as art and culture are being created on a traffic-free site. The diversity and heterogeneity of the uses will be reflected in the architectural design of the new buildings. Green roofs as well as the company’s own photovoltaic and geothermal systems meet high ecological standards. Open and friendly landscaped inner courtyards combine the demands of modern working life with an upscale quality of stay.

The building concept

In the west, the quarter is bordered by a long building block. This forms the backbone of the quarter with commercial uses (office/storage/production) and two green parking decks above it, and at the same time represents an effective structural noise protection measure against the railroad line running behind it. To the south, this building continues into an angular figure, which forms the conclusion and at the same time the southern anchor of the quarter with the special component of an event use. This angular figure is supplemented in the upper and lower half of the site by two block-like building fields. The northern development field consists of three buildings: a prelude development with long-stay uses that formulates a high point, and two angular buildings for senior care and senior living uses. The southern building field is composed of a row-shaped medical office building with ground-floor retail use and another angular building for office use. The five-story buildings along Kaiserstraße and the eastern part of Ringstraße close off the neighborhood to the north and east.

For the planned new buildings, building components with a high degree of prefabrication are chosen to ensure a fast and economical construction method. The facades are planned as precast concrete elements.

In the area of the upper parking decks of the western building block, the facade will be greened by climbing plants and thus form a filter to the railroad line. In the office buildings, the façade elements will also be designed as an external supporting structure. This will enable support-free and flexible office spaces.