Campus Bockenheim | Stefan Forster

The first phase in the redevelopment of Bockenheim Campus, once a part of the Goethe University of Frankfurt, involved building a residential complex on the northern part of the site comprising three apartment buildings in a single continuum wrapping around the perimeter of the block. Each building was designed by a different architectural practice. In this context STEFAN FORSTER ARCHITEKTEN designed a building with 58 apartments and a retail space in a prominent position right next to the listed Bockenheimer Depot on Carlo-Schmid-Platz. The building opens up towards the square with generously sized balconies that take up the motif of the rounded corner. Prominent cornices and variously modelled rendered projections generate the desired sculptural quality, citing the design of urban residential developments of the last century. In its material quality, the dark clinker-clad ground floor is a respectful nod to the Bockenheimer Depot while the chosen colour tone deliberately maintains a distance. Each apartment in the block has either a loggia or a balcony, facing the front or the back. The building was built to the passive house standard.