Golden glow for a new hotel and apartment building in Essen

Since the summer, anyone looking for a temporary home in the Ruhr metropolis has had two more options: The d-partments and the Flowers Hotel welcome their tenants and guests with charming industrial design and perfect comfort in a central location. A gold-colored X-TEND façade mesh by Carl Stahl Architecture secures the balconies of a total of 140 hotel rooms and 193 serviced apartments and gives the building a special luster.

Essen did not suddenly become a cultural icon in the heart of the Ruhr area overnight when it was designated European Capital of Culture 2010. As early as between the years 1918 and 1933, the then up-and-coming mining stronghold was considered a secret architectural capital. Today the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex bears witness to the rich industrial culture of the Ruhr metropolis. The site is also home to the Red Dot Design Museum, the world's largest exhibition of contemporary design. And with the Museum Folkwang, Essen is also home to one of the most renowned art museums in Germany.

This formative combination of industry, art and design has found its way into the design concept of the new Flowers Hotel in Essen – an imposing, two-winged new building in a central location not far from downtown Essen. With its red clinker brick façade, it continues the city's industrial tradition and reinterprets the brick expressionism of the 1920s. One hundred and forty hotel rooms and 193 serviced apartments, an Asian streetfood restaurant and a rooftop bar with a view over the Ruhr area are spread over 17,500 square meters and eight floors. A colorful installation by Berlin artist Margareta Hesse turns the glass elevator in the connecting structure between the two wings of the building into an art object.

Modern industrial design
Warm colors characterize the appearance of the building. To complement the red of the brick, architect Andreas Deilmann combined light-colored wooden windows and balcony flooring made of high-quality Bangkirai. Following the idea of modern industrial design, the planner chose exposed concrete walls and screen elements made of stainless steel. Instead of an ordinary balcony parapet, a stainless steel mesh by Carl Stahl Architecture was used, stretched over the entire surface from the first to the seventh floor. Finished in gold, the mesh from the X-TEND Colours range of the Suessen-based specialist for architectural cables blends harmoniously into the overall picture. With a cable diameter of two and a mesh width of 60 millimeters, the stainless steel mesh is ornate and transparent, and connects the balconies without disturbing visual barriers. In this way, the view of the surroundings from the inside remains unclouded; viewed from the outside, X-TEND offers the architecture space to make an impact. The sturdy stainless steel mesh has the additional benefit of acting as fall protection.

Form and function perfectly combined
The interior continues the design concept. Exposed concrete and unplastered clinker walls harmonize with furniture in warm colors, elements made of smooth metal shape the industrial charm of the interior. A cozy lounge area with furniture in simple, modern design invites you to linger. To secure the gallery, the planners also used the X-TEND stainless steel mesh in gold, which harmonizes with the warm colors and seamlessly blends into the overall architectural picture. This makes X-TEND a design and protective element at the same time – the ideal combination of form and function.

X-TEND: filigree and versatile
Delicate and transparent in appearance, sturdy and durable in quality, X-TEND is used in a large number of different areas. Whether as fall protection, balustrade in-fill or protective mesh, as façade cladding, trellis structures for façade greening or for the realization of ambitious zoo enclosures, whether visually restrained or as a deliberately placed design element: X-TEND unites the static advantages of cable with the flexible structure of a mesh. Furthermore, the stainless steel mesh by Carl Stahl Architecture has the general building authority approval from the DIBt (German Institute for Building Technology). With color-coated stainless steel cables, X-TEND Colours sets accents in architecture and interior design. The decorative and emission-free polymer coating is weather-resistant and durable. Available in red, green, blue, gold, white and black as well as in RAL colors on request, with ferrules in a stainless finish or blackened, X-TEND Colours offers space for a wide range of design ideas both indoors and outdoors.

Facts
Project: Hotel and apartment block, Essen
Commercial tenants: Flowers Hotels GmbH, d-partments GmbH, Mongo’s Gastro GmbH
Architecture: Deilmann Planungsgesellschaft mbH, Muenster, Germany
Client: Andreas Deilmann Familienstiftung (family foundation), Muenster
Facade mesh, fall protection: CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE, Suessen, Germany
Glass facade design: Margareta Hesse, Berlin
Photos: Baldauf & Baldauf Fotografie, Dresden

About CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE
Balustrade in-fill and fall protection, façades covered in foliage, spectacular LED light installations and complex zoo enclosures: With the experience of more than 25 years, CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE creates impressive architectural projects with stainless steel cables and mesh. The services CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE offers worldwide as a complete package for architectural projects range from consulting, planning and structural analysis to manufacture and assembly. CARL STAHL ARCHITECTURE is proud of its climate-neutral operations: It thus thinks and acts sustainably, ensuring the value chain with its own production facilities in Europe as a German family company that has been active since 1880.