6°C

Architectural design

6°C

Architectural design

Architectural design

With its innovative design, the MAIN TOWER is a technical masterpiece. Its fully-glazed outer facade placed the highest demands on the statics of the building. While the outer walls of many high-rise buildings are load-bearing, the vertical load of the MAIN TOWER is absorbed by the core structure and the external supports.
Architectural design – a high rise with depth

Architectural design – a high rise with depth

Even for experienced professionals, building a skyscraper is demanding. But the MAIN TOWER proved to be a much greater challenge.

Its fully-glazed exterior facade placed the toughest demands on the statics of the building and required an innovative design, which making the high-rise a technical masterpiece. While the outer walls of many high-rise buildings are constructed as load-bearing tubes, the vertical load of the MAIN TOWER is transferred to the core structure and the external supports.

However, before the construction of the towers began, the MAIN TOWER started its life by growing into the depths. After the base plate made from reinforced concrete of up to 3.8m thickness had been cast, the building was simultaneously constructed upwards and downwards using the so-called top down method. During peak construction phases, a new floor was added every four days.

The MAIN TOWER weighs more than 200,000 tonnes. This makes it about twenty times heavier than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. 112 foundation piles with a diameter of 120 to 180 cm reach as far as 50 metres deep into the ground and firmly anchor the building Frankfurt's soil.