The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched an international urban planning and architectural design competition for its new premises. The purpose of this competition is to identify the best design concepts for the ECB´s future home and to select an architect to carry out the detailed planning work for the new premises and, if possible, to implement the project.
The new premises are to be built on the site of the Großmarkthalle (wholesale market) – an area of 120,000 m2 on the river in the eastern part of Frankfurt am Main – which the ECB purchased from the City of Frankfurt in March 2002. The site will be developed to accommodate 2,500 workplaces, with office space and special areas covering a main usable area of approximately 100,000 m2, plus all the necessary parking areas and technical facilities.
The competition is open to architects from all over the world and the deadline for applications is 20 January 2003. An open call for candidature has been published in the Official Journal of the European Communities and on the ECB´s website. Interested architects should submit their applications in accordance with the requirements set out in the call for candidature. The competition will be organised as a restricted project competition in two phases following a pre-selection of qualified applicants. Eighty architects from among the interested applicants will be invited to participate in the first phase, which will be to develop initial outline design concepts. These design concepts must take into account the fact that the Großmarkthalle is a listed building.
A jury composed of internationally renowned architects and representatives of the City of Frankfurt and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) will then short-list 12 candidates to be admitted to the second phase.
(source: ECB)
