Ground-breaking ceremony in Oberrad

Together with schneider+schumacher, ABG FRANKFURT HOLDING is constructing a new building project in Frankfurt’s Oberrad district, where the basic rent for apartments will be capped at €10 per square metre. Today Frankfurt’s mayor Peter Feldmann, ABG Managing Director Frank Junker and Professor Michael Schumacher attended the ground-breaking ceremony for two residential buildings with a total of 46 apartments, which will be constructed under the "Frankfurt model". Tenants will be able to move in by 1 April 2018.

ABG, acting as client for the project, is conducting an experiment together with the architects, structural engineers and building technicians. AGB’s Managing Director Frank Junker emphasises that the aim of the project is to demonstrate “how, within current frameworks, energy-efficient, high-quality new housing can be achieved on a low budget”. The new housing project in Oberrad exemplifies – as Peter Feldmann the Mayor puts it – that “cost-effective building is not just a theoretical possibility but can be implemented in tangible projects, even without the need for subsidies”.

Prof Michael Schumacher explains: “By placing the stairwells of both buildings on the exterior we reduce both the building volume that requires heating as well as building costs, since these staircases do not have to be enclosed”. The building costs can be further lowered by employing simple construction methods, reducing services and designing shorter runs, optimising the technical services, using repetitive modules for elements such as stairs and windows, and simplifying structural components. The aim is to develop a variable building type for living accommodation that fits into the surroundings, in terms of both the urban and architectural context. Here on the Oberrad site, the concept takes the form of two buildings with gable roofs. Each comprises two, three, and four-room apartments on three or four storeys, plus underground parking for 20 cars.

Photo: Ernst Wrba/ABG. From left to right: Christof Engel, Managing Director of Hochbau Engel Hanau; Prof Michael Schumacher, Architect; Peter Feldmann, Mayor of Frankfurt; Frank Junker, Managing Director of ABG