Post Tower is the headquarters of the logistic company Deutsche Post DHL

Deutsche Post

Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL, is the world's largest logistics group. With its headquarters in Bonn, the corporation has 467,088 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide and generated revenue of € 51.48 billion in 2010...

 with the two brands postal services for Germany Deutsche Post and the worldwide logistic company DHL

DHL

DHL Express is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post providing international express mail services. DHL is a world market leader in sea and air mail....

. The Post Tower is a 162.5-metre, 41-storey office building in Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

, Germany. It was designed by German-American architect Helmut Jahn

Helmut Jahn

Helmut Jahn is a German-American architect, well known for designs such as the US$800 million Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the Messeturm in Frankfurt and the One Liberty Place, formerly the tallest building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Suvarnabhumi Airport, an international...

 and won the 2002 Silver Emporis Skyscraper Award

Emporis Skyscraper Award

The Emporis Skyscraper Award is an award for architectural excellence regarding the design of buildings and their functionality.The award is presented annually by Emporis to the building representing the "Best new skyscraper for design and functionality". To qualify, nominated buildings must have...

.

It is the ninth tallest skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

 in Germany, and the tallest in Germany outside of Frankfurt am Main.

Building details

The building is located at the river Rhine and in the center of the old parliament area of Bonn near the Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...

and has about 55,000 m² office surface. Construction phase was May 2000 to December 2002, 80,000 m³ of concrete and 16,000 tons of structural steel were used in the building shell. The building dimensions are; height: 162.5 m, width: 41.0 m, length: 81.1 m (with ring walls 86.55 m), weight: 300,000 t. The building has the ground floor, 40 upper floors and 5 underground levels. The Tower has a surface area of 7,000 m². The Tower is constructed as a steel-glass-building. The base of the Post Tower has the shape of two staggered semi-ellipses of two shifted circle segments. Most office walls, doors and the floors of skygardens and elevators are therefore made of 93,000 m² glass used.

Climate control concept

A double skin glass façade with about 1.2 m cavity between external skin and the primary façade, provides natural ventilation regulated by venetian blinds. The north-facing windows at the front are smooth, the glass windows on the south-facing façade are gently sloping to allow a better flow of air (see picture). Via a decentralized underground convector the external air is sucked in from the space between the façades, conditioned and fed back into the offices. The air also reaches internal areas of the building through doors and corridors.

The office air is filtered into the Sky Gardens, warms up those areas and then is filtered back outside via façade flaps on the east and west sides of the Sky Gardens. The double skin façade enables huge energy savings.

The benefits gained by the Post Tower in using up to 130 liters of groundwater per second to heat and cool the concrete core. The remaining energy requirement is covered by connection to the district heating system, refrigerating equipment and heat pump

Heat pump

A heat pump is a machine or device that effectively "moves" thermal energy from one location called the "source," which is at a lower temperature, to another location called the "sink" or "heat sink", which is at a higher temperature. An air conditioner is a particular type of heat pump, but the...

s.