A crown for Germany’s third-oldest city
Located in Augsburg, the new office building will activate an underused plot along the city’s railway, adding a new layer to the city’s many ages of development
As one of Germany’s oldest cities, Augsburg has a rich and layered history, and an urban fabric to match. The city’s architecture, has a mix of styles, is unified in its grandeur – and Henning Larsen’s new Ladehof building will be a natural contemporary addition to this tapestry.
Situated within a masterplan that proposes to redevelop the land immediately abutting Augsburg’s main train station, the 170-meter-long building will serve as a gateway into the city center for visitors and residents alike. Comprised of 20,400m2 the building will primarily house offices, with commercial and restaurant spaces embedded in the ground level podium.
“The area around the main station in Augsburg has been long underserved, and our goal with Ladehof was to reactivate the area and bring some of the city’s architectural beauty out to this area as well,” says Werner Frosch, director of Henning Larsen’s Munich office. “The design is contemporary but nods to the flourishes you see in the Baroque, Rococo, and even Art Nouveau structures throughout the city.”
To break down the massive scale of the plot (over 1.5x the length of a Bundesliga football pitch), the building mass is divided into four volumes of equal proportion. These structures are, in turn, offset from each other to further subdivide and add rhythm and human scale to the long façade.
Moving up from the ground level podium, the individual volumes are clad in gold panels that softly radiate light throughout the day. Each of the four volumes are crowned by arced parapets that abstractly reference the onion domes and mansard roofs of the Altstadt.
While the volumes are visually distinct from the outside, they are aligned in the interior to allow tenants the option of leasing out any amount of space. The flexible modules will make fitout fast and can be configured to accommodate any range of spatial needs. Two roof decks on the upper floors also provide ample space for office gatherings/events and offer views out to the city along with the hills that surround it.
Ladehof Augsburg is developed by CV Real Estate AG and is designed in collaboration with landscape architects Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl. The building is currently in the final phases of design development and is expected to reach completion by the summer of July 2024.
