RWE Tower

The RWE Tower is home to the headquarters of the energy supplier RWE in Essen.

Architecture

The 127 meter high building ( 120m viewing platform, antenna 162 meters) was designed by the Düsseldorf-based architects Ingenhoven Overdiek Kahlen & Partner. Construction began in July 1994. In December 1996, the tower was completed. Its base is equivalent to a polygon with 51 corners and 32 meters in diameter. The RWE tower has three underground floors, the ground floor and 26 office floors that add up to 56,000 square feet of space. Are two technical floors between the 17th and 18th floor office. Out of the nine lifts one is outside of the building. Overall, here are up to 500 jobs.

The tower is designed ecologically oriented. It allows between the double-glazed façade natural ventilation and gaining energy from natural daylight and solar heat. The use of energy-storing materials while reducing peak loads.

With the RWE Tower, the planners have received many awards, including the Architecture Award NRW 1998 and the real estate CIMMIT Award 1998.

Connection between architecture and art

Various artists have dealt with the architecture in conjunction with art. So Lothar Baumgarten brings quirky neologisms from business, politics and culture on the walls in new contexts in the field of employee casinos and the ground floor. The Essen-based artist Norbert Thomas created the park behind the tower, the stainless steel sculpture Jumping line. Richard Long moved, also in the park, a stone sculpture with the name Neandertal Line in contrast to the modern architecture. François Morellet created for each floor, a plastic that varies from floor to floor in shape.

Staircase

Plastic " Neandertal Line" by Richard Long

Plastic "jumping line " by Norbert Thomas