Innovative Tower Block Facades: Swiss Re London Headquarters and Westhafen Tower, Frankfurt

In London and Frankfurt am Main, two tower blocks are nearing completion, the facades of which would seem, at first sight, to be very similar. What the Swiss Re company’s headquarters by Foster and Partners in London and the Westhafen Tower by Schneider + Schumacher in Frankfurt have in common is a circular layout, multi-storey “conservatories” for natural ventilation, and glazed facades divided into triangular or lozenge-shaped elements. The Swiss Re building is almost twice as high as the Westhafen Tower, however, and there are considerable differences in the form of the load-bearing structures, the double-skin facades and the design expression of the two buildings.