Hercules skyscraper

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hercules skyscraper
Hercules skyscraper
Hercules skyscraper
List of high-rise buildings in Cologne
Basic data
Place: Cologne-Neuehrenfeld
Opening: 1972
Status : completed
Architect : Peter Neufert
Use / legal
Usage : Residential and commercial units
Apartments : 427
Owner : Free float ( WEG )
Property management : Kallmeyer & Nagel Vermietungs und Verwaltungs GmbH, Cologne
Technical specifications
Height : 102.0 m
Floors : 31
Height comparison
Cologne : 9. ( list )
Germany : 64. ( list )
address
City: Cologne
Country: Germany

The Herkules skyscraper is located in the Neuehrenfeld district of Cologne and is the ninth highest skyscraper in the city at 102 meters. The building was completed in 1972 .

In the 1960s, the city of Cologne intended to create new urban living space near the city center. Following the example of other residential densities by vertical arrangement, that high-rise buildings , the architect was Peter Neufert commissioned Cologne's first "super-house" (self-promotion) to build. Up until then, Neufert had planned and built high-rise office buildings. The house was built in the (controversial) client model by the Dr. Rüger group.

The skyscraper is clad in blue, red and orange enameled metal sheets. The silver contrasting, three-part but at the same time three-fold variation of the windows follow a free rhythm, a feature of the “systemic architecture” formulated by Neufert. He consistently implemented these in all of his high-rise buildings:

  • the complete elimination of the usual rigid axis order of the windows
  • the facade , structured with strict and fixed lines ('rasteritis') is loosened up in favor of a liveliness of the outer facade
  • In this way, flexible, function-oriented room division is also possible in the interior

The apartments on the 31 floors are between 24 and 33 square meters, the apartments with two rooms 43 square meters. In addition, each floor has two larger apartments with three rooms each, all of which face the cathedral side . All apartments together form 427 residential units. In the house, which was named after the adjacent Herkulesstraße (see also: Herkulesberg ), there is a porter and four elevators (the journey from the ground floor to the 31st floor takes about one and a half minutes). There is a swimming pool and sauna on the top floor.

Despite its colorful exterior (nickname: parrot house), which also serves as a popular postcard motif, the high-rise has remained unpopular with Cologne from the start. An architecture magazine got carried away in the first few years with the assessment: "The housing factory scares off neighbors". In 2005, the Cologne Tourist Office awarded the house the “Sour Lemon”, a negative prize for unsightly architecture to the detriment of the attractiveness of Cologne tourism. The residents come from a student and international environment with a comparatively high fluctuation .

On January 11, 1979, a fire broke out on the first floor, which was started by a candle. A young man died while using the elevator, and another was seriously injured by jumping from eight meters.

Web links

Commons : Herkules-Hochhaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Schäfke (Ed.): Das neue Köln 1945–1995 Köln 1995, ISBN 3-927396-62-1 , p. 199
  2. ↑ June 5, 1970; Lecture on the occasion of the construction site demonstration of the Hercules high-rise buildings by Dr. Rüger Group Cologne
  3. ↑ See Uta Winterhager: It used to be more colorful , in: ModerneREGIONAL 16, 1 (January 2016)
  4. ↑ Anka Ghise-Beer: the architect Peter Neufert. (PDF; 1.47 MB) In: Anka Ghise-Beer (dissertation). Uni Wuppertal, July 24, 2001, accessed on October 21, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b Jens Meifert: Inside the residential factory. In: Rundschau Online. Kölnische Rundschau , August 15, 2010, accessed on October 21, 2015 .
  6. ^ Christian Deppe: Angry at Herkuleshaus. In: Rundschau Online. Kölnische Rundschau , April 29, 2005, accessed on October 21, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Roland Kirbach: Almost a flaming inferno. In: The time . Dönhoff / Schmidt / Joffe, January 19, 1979, accessed December 8, 2015 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 57 ′ 1.1 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 1.2 ″  E