A trailblazing entrance to the city

Situated directly on the centrally located Portsmouthplatz in Duisburg – between the pedestrian zone and the main railway station – this construction project is, quite literally, “trailblazing”. With its distinctive fan-like rearward-pivoting façade and floor-by-floor tiered projections, the Mercator One immediately catches the eye and simultaneously guides you into the city. The anthracite grey façade cladding gives the building a restrained character despite its striking appearance, while the generous glass surfaces imbue it with transparency and a sense of lightness. At the same time, the façade’s extraordinary silhouette, which continually reveals new and surprising perspectives, makes this building – which measures approximately 100 meters long, 17 meters wide and 26 meters high – a landmark in the surrounding urban area.

The ground floor of the new building is 9,500 square metres, providing plenty of space for offices or for gastronomic or retail use. The structure of the building allows for a flexible floorplan design and is highly adaptable for all types of office concepts. For optimum user comfort, the building offers different city views which emerge in turn from the building’s lateral graduations and the fan-like twists of its main section.

Clever façade design

The WICTEC 60 mullion/transom façade system proved to be the perfect solution for the façade, given its architectural and constructional requirements. It meant that the floor-by-floor tiered graduations and projections planned for the main section could be implemented using the flank offset of the mullion profiles – laterally parallel with the concrete soffit. The strong deformations of up to 50 mm over the entire width of the building are proportionally absorbed in the profiles. The façade was also extensively fitted with crash-resistant glazing and a filigree profile width of 60 mm. All the windows were constructed using the WICLINE 75 evo system – and equipped with concealed turning sashes that include crash-resistant opening limiters.

The client, Torsten Toeller – CEO of Fressnapf Holdings – placed great emphasis on environmentally conscious construction and a long-term, sustainable concept for Mercator One. All of this is reflected in the Hadi Teherani design. As Senior Architect at Hadi Teherani Architects Bernd Muley explains: “Our focus is always the environmental aspect. The Cradle to Cradle Certified (C2C Certified) principle is integral to our work. For example, when we select materials for a building, we also consider – besides the architectural aspects – where the material comes from, how efficient its manufacture is and what becomes of the material at the end of its life”. With this in mind, the client and architect turned to WICONA systems when creating the distinctive façade of Mercator One and used Hydro CIRCAL 75R – a low-carbon aluminum alloy, made from 75% post-consumer scrap.

According to the architect Bernd Muley, recycled aluminium will continue to play an increasingly important role in façade design in the future. Mercator One has won the Bund Deutscher Architekten (The Association of German Architects) prize for North Rhine-Westphalia, Right Lower Rhine.