Office Building Junghof - Visible Steel for a Fire Safe Structure

In the centre of Frankfurt the office building "Junghof" had to be refurbished to make it attractive for modern use. When it was built in the 1950s five storeys were located around a central court. The new concept (Fig. 1) developed by the Architects and Engineers added two storeys, raising the building above the critical height into the class of high-rise buildings. This led to additional requirements with regard to the fire-safety, mainly escape routes and fire resistance of structural elements. The building is located close to a district with many sky scrapers that rise up to 200 m. Because it is visible from most of these the architects invested much effort into the 5th façade. The roof was given a free form, cladded with aluminium panels.