On 20 July 2018, the Cologne trade fair and event organizer Koelnmesse and invited guests celebrated the official end of the construction work for the multi-storey car park at Zoo Bridge. Parts of the building had already been opened in September 2017 and full operation of the car park with its 3,200 parking spaces started April 2018. In the meantime, also the finishing touches have been completed, including the commissioning of ten charging station for electric vehicles – thirty more can be retrofitted at any time.
The celebration was held on the logistics area which offers space for about 310 lorries and will – together with the new multi-storey car park – ease the car and lorry traffic burden of the surrounding quarters on the right bank of the river Rhine. In order to ensure a smooth trade fair logistics, the new logistics centre was created in the immediate vicinity of the car park building.
For the car park and the associated trade fair logistics building, Koelnmesse had launched a “design and build” competition which was won by the Cologne architecture firm schultearchiteken together with Deutsche Industrie- und Parkhaus GmbH (dip). The result is a curved structure with an individual design that blends in nicely with the surroundings and takes account of the prominent location directly at the Zoo Bridge. A particular highlight is the north façade in the bridge area. For this, the Stuttgart architecture firm wulf architekten designed a curtain wall of metal scales with more than 3,000 individual elements – so far unique in Germany.
Picture credit: Koelnmesse GmbH
