Foster and Partners have launched concept designs for Eurogate, a dramatic new zero-emission, sustainable building that offers flexible office, hotel and/or conferencing facilities. It benefits from a prime location along the harbour front, extending the already vibrant public attractions and pedestrian routes around Duisburg Inner Harbour. The successful urban renewal of the former industrial harbour has been underway for over a decade, and the realisation of this ambitious masterplan has seen a dramatic transformation of the area into a vibrant waterside setting that continues to attract new and growing businesses and communities.
These wide-reaching and comprehensive improvements to the area are in no small part due to the determination and stamina of the Duisburg Inner Harbour Development Company, which continues to implement Fosters' original 1991 competition-winning scheme, displayed in their Hafenforum offices. The final piece of the scheme is Eurogate - a waterside office development. Arguably on the best site in the harbour, Eurogate is key to the successful realisation of the original ambition for the future of Duisburg.
With many cafes and restaurants, an art gallery, new houses, offices, converted historic buildings and a new park, Duisburg Harbour is becoming a thriving commercial centre in its own right, and benefits from excellent transportation links to key cities and towns throughout the Ruhr. Eurogate reinforces this growing dynamism, and it provides unrivalled high quality waterside facilities for work as well as leisure.
A crescent shaped building, the volume is punctuated with courtyards and atria to ensure natural ventilation, maximum daylight penetration and views to the water. Within the advanced geometry of the shell, rational rectangular floorplates enable fast and cost-effective construction. Striving to be zero-emission, the building has an ideal south facing orientation, and extensive use of photovoltaic technology gives Eurogate its distinctive façade while generating income from electricity to power up to 200 family homes. At ground level, there will be cafes, a promenade and steps abutting the water, while the configuration of offices inside remains a working brief that can be tailored to suit specific tenants.
