Roggendorf house

View of the Roggendorf House on the Rhine.

The Roggendorf-Haus , also known colloquially as the “ Flossi-Haus ”, is a former storage building located at Speditionstraße 15a in the Düsseldorf harbor . It was built and used by Josef Roggendorf Lagerhaus GmbH, which existed until 1996.

The owner of the building with an area of 2100 m² is the state capital Düsseldorf, which has been providing 1000 m² of this on the third and fourth floors since 2015 for its “STARTPLATZ Düsseldorf” initiative as a start-up center with services for young companies under one roof.

Close up of some flossis .

Building ensemble along the Julo Levin shore in the Medienhafen.

The facade was decorated with 24 Flossi climbing sculptures by the Stuttgart artist rosalie in the colors yellow, green, red and blue; five more climb the neighboring building on the left as seen from Julo Levin embankment up to the roof. Each Flossi is unique, differentiated in its different posture and formal design. The figures are up to 4.2 meters high and 2.5 meters wide and are spread over a facade area of around 800 m². In 1998, the climbing figures were seen for the first time on the facade of the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf am Rhein , on the occasion of the opening of the German Plastic Museum and the exhibition Art and Plastic . In March 2002 the company Klüh Service Management donated these figures to the state capital Düsseldorf. After a major renovation of the storage building had just been completed in 2001, the city had the figures attached to its facade.

However, in 2018 they were so old that they threatened to break due to the weather and age. The choice of materials used was not designed for permanent outdoor installation. In addition to corrosion and a considerable increase in weight due to water retention, the material had partially decomposed. To avoid accidents, the Cultural Office had them dismantled and stored in May. A return of the figures or an alternative use are uncertain.

A review and possible repair of the flossis will take at least until 2019. The costs for dismantling and transporting the colorful figures, each weighing 150 kilograms, were around 17,500 euros.