When good neighbours reach for the skies

The ZIN high-rise project in the north of Brussels is a world away from iconic, solitary giants of glass and steel. ZIN is all about engagement with the community. It includes sports halls where local clubs can train, apartment space, a hotel, a huge roof garden with stunning views, and a greenhouse open to guests visiting the hotel and cafe.

ZIN was awarded this year’s International High-Rise Award (IHA) on 3 November in recognition of its mixed-use philosophy. The project sets out an alternative future for high-rise architecture, said Peter Cachola Schmal, Director of the German Architecture Museum (DAM), in a speech to the awards ceremony. It was not, he said, “an exclusive landmark, vying to outdo all others in height, but rather an open, generous building, connected to the city.” The DAM presents the IHA each year in partnership with the City of Frankfurt am Main and DekaBank.

Another unique feature of ZIN is that the complex is not a spectacular brand-new building. Rather, it represents the clever refurbishment and extension of existing buildings in the form of the World Trade Center, built in the 1970s. Chair of the Jury Brian Yang, architect and partner at BIG Copenhagen and winner of the 2024 Award, praised 51N4E and Jaspers Eyers Architects (both based in Brussels) and l’AUC (Paris), which delivered the project, as “an astonishing project which achieves everything that a high-rise can do in positive terms. It enhances the value of the environment and boasts excellent internal topography. The transitions between public and private areas have been brilliantly executed.”

Frankfurt award with global reach

There’s a good reason why the IHA is presented in Frankfurt am Main, as it’s the only one of Germany’s cities which boasts a genuinely high-rise skyline. At the time of its completion in 1997, the Commerzbank Tower was Europe’s tallest building, at 259m – a title it held until 2003. Nowadays, 44 high-rise buildings over 100m tall dominate the city’s skyline, and more are under construction. Other German cities lag well behind Frankfurt: Berlin has 12 high-rises, Cologne nine and Munich six.

“We’re a small metropolis which takes on projects that vie with projects in Asia for quality and complexity,” says Peter Cachola Schmal, Director of the German Architecture Museum (DAM). He hopes the prize encourages others around the world to see things differently. “I really do believe that, with the IHA here in Frankfurt, we are helping to take global high-rise architecture to the next level in an innovative way.”