SIGN!/ Düsseldorf, Germany/ 2010
Type: Office
Size: 161,460 sq ft / 15,000 sq m
Status: Completed 2010
Height: 19 floors; 249 ft / 76 m
Previously Named: SIGN Dusseldorf, Hafen Dusseldorf
Recognition: AIA Chicago Chapter Award
A well-designed building is like a living thing, carefully engineered to adapt to its environment in a constant effort to keep its occupants comfortable and its carbon footprint in check. At SIGN, a modern office building near the Rhine River in Düsseldorf, the building itself becomes a system. Its envelope, composed of overlapping glass sheets, opens up at each floor’s edge to reveal individually controlled vents that allow for fresh air intake. Integrated cooling in the concrete mass of the exposed slabs supplied by groundwater further reduces overall energy consumption.
Obtaining the desired efficiency required a serious scientific undertaking — a process that heavily influenced the simple yet highly sophisticated aesthetic of SIGN and reasserted our studio’s commitment to sustainable design.
