ABSTRACT
Introduction The architects won the competition to design a centre for economic promotion in 1988. The building was conceived as providing a landmark on the edge of the masterplan for a new Microelectronics Park. Duisburg is replacing its declining heavy industries with less blighting activities, and is striving to become Europe’s new nerve centre for the research and development of microelectronics. The building is to provide office space and galleries to be rented to companies which are pioneering the city’s post-industrial revival. The intention was to create an energy-saving building that was electronically controlled but not artificially serviced.
