An innovative and ambitious building is opening its doors in Frankfurt. The Lufthansa Aviation Centre is ready for occupation and to be filled with life as the new home for 1,800 staff in the Lufthansa workforce. At the opening ceremony, attended by the State Prime Minister in Hesse Roland Koch and the governing Mayoress of Frankfurt, Petra Roth, the architect, Christoph Ingenhoven, is today handing over a symbolic door key to Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber and Executive Board Member Stefan Lauer.

The new edifice is very special for Lufthansa, since nowhere else do so many Lufthansa employees work under one roof. Its transparent and open design gives free rein to communications and creativity, Mayrhuber observed. The Centres exposed position at Frankfurt Airport will make it a landmark for the Rhine-Main region and signal Lufthansas commitment to the Frankfurt base. Light-bathed, open-plan offices, bright furniture and the courtyard greenery make for a pleasant working atmosphere in the transparent building.

Lufthansa stands for an open culture, said Wolfgang Mayrhuber. We fly around the globe, connecting people and cultures. The Lufthansa Aviation Centre reflects and, with its transparent design, furthers this openness and curiosity, and will become a center of internal network building. The Lufthansa Aviation Centre constitutes a major step forward. With the new building, Lufthansa is well set for the future. It can be expanded in two further construction phases. If we perceive the need for structural changes in Frankfurt in the coming years, we can react flexibly, Mayrhuber emphasised.

The Lufthansa Aviation Centre is designed to satisfy the inherent human need to talk and communicate,” explained the Dusseldorf architect Christoph Ingenhoven. Communication and transparency are its keynotes. That transparency is realised with the use of so much glass, with a translucent facade allowing staff to participate in natures interplay as one season of the year gives way to the next. The imposing roof recalls elements from the world of aviation. The analogies, though, are not decorative but functional,” Ingenhoven remarked. The beauty is, so to speak, the consequence of correctness,” said the architect.

Thirty six meeting rooms, seven spacious conference rooms and open communication zones in the office areas meet the need for communication in modern office work. Three Meeting Points on each floor provide alternative space for working and informal communications. The offices are distributed on ten fingers and their modular design allows them to be reconfigured, as needs dictate. It was important to us to turn this high structural and design quality into an experience for our staff, who invest their competence and creativity anew, daily, for Lufthansa, said Stefan Lauer.

Major importance was also attached to ecological considerations in the construction of the Lufthansa Aviation Centre. A heat-active thermo system reduces energy consumption to only a third of a conventional building”. Natural materials like wood and stone create a feeling of wellbeing and comfort. Nine gardens with plants and trees from diverse continents are conducive to contentment and relaxation. White sand beaches, Australian outback, Japanese Zen gardens, water zones resembling alpine lakes in Northern Italy - the diversity of the garden landscape denotes the internationality of the Aviation Group. Spanned by a glass-latticed roof, the green courtyards allow the building to breathe. They insulate against heat, cold and noise.

Art is another significant element in the new complex. The Center features works by different artists. Stefan Lauer: Art has something to do with dialogue.” It sharpens the senses, it is occasionally provocative and it encourages the development of ideas, said Lauer. The Lufthansa Aviation Centre is a building designed to spur creativity. Art can also contribute to that end.

The Lufthansa Aviation Center at Frankfurt Airport is situated east of the Lufthansa Flight Training Center between the Airportring and Autobahn A3. In conjunction with the new Intercity Express (ICE) railway station, it imparts an attractive and modern urban development accent characterising the silhouette of the City of Frankfurt. Lufthansa is the biggest employer in the Federal State of Hesse, it employs around 35,000 people in Frankfurt and worldwide more than 90,000.
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