25hours Hotel

9. marzo 2021

© O&O Baukunst Köln GmbH

Every new building today has to respond to the old existing fabric. Appropriating these forms is often deemed to be conservative or bourgeois—a stigma that “creative” architects prefer to avoid. Architects should strive to reflect the past, revisiting questions and solutions of the time and using them as a basis from which to build.

Transformation of an office building into a hotel
Location:                                   Cologne city centre
Client:                                        Immofinanz Friesenquartier GmbH
Tenant:                                     25hours Hotel Company
Interior designer:                  Werner Aissilinger
Project start:                           2016
Completion:                            2018
Function:                                  Hotel
GFA:                                            20,000 m²

The Gerling Destrict in the city centre of Cologne is considered to be one of the largest architectural monuments of the early post-War period in Germany. In 2015, O&O Baukunst was commissioned to transform the former administrative headquarters of the Gerling insurance group—the Rundbau—into a luxury urban hotel. The task was to preserve the special architectural expression of the building despite functional adaptations and to carefully transfer it into the present. Thus, the performance of the listed building was to be improved with contemporary means.

The historic stone façade of the former office building was restored in keeping with its status as a listed building and the existing water basins and gargoyles were renovated. Taking up the geometry of the circular building, the rooms were structured into “inner circle” and an “outer circle” areas. As a special finishing touch, the building was given a recessed staggered storey constructed with gold-anodised steel reminiscent of the design language of the 1950s and 1960s.

The architectural qualities of the circular building were transferred into new, durable forms without any visible traces of the renovation. The new storey blends harmoniously into the building structure and offers a unique view over the rooftops of the city to Cologne Cathedral.