Squaire Metro in the Syklink

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Photo © Thomas Eicken

Architects: Lengfeld & Wilisch Architekten

Location: B43, 60549 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Year: 2011
Client: IVG Investment GmbH & Co. Airrail- Parking
Team: C. Kelber, P. Keller, N. Okolo, K. Wilisch
Auszeichnungen: Preis des Deutschen Stahlbaus 2012

The Skylink bridge is a slightly curved steel tube resting on eight supports and connecting the business center "THE SQUAIRE", a landmark building opened in 2011 next to the Frankfurt Airport, to a carpark with a capacity of 2500 cars situated in a 300 m distant wooded area.
The bridge itself incorporates a cable car – the Squaire Metro – which transports up to 1600 pedestrians per hour commuting between the hotel and office complex "The Squaire" and the carpark and provides two automated stops at both ends of the bridge. In the middle of the rail line the construction broadens to the width of 8.20 m over a length of ca. 60 m to create room for the passing point needed for the two cable cars.

At a height of 8 metres the trussed steel construction spans several motorway feeders, the access roads to the Frankfurt Airport, a rainwater retention basin at the B 3 and, moreover, is situated in the security area of the Frankfurt - Mannheim ICE railway line. This location made it difficult to find a suitable line for the bridge, particularly as there were only 8 possible places for positioning the supports and the site logistics had to be managed with the airport being in operation.
At its widest point the bridge has a span width of up to 90 metres and is the world's first trussed steel construction which the structural engineers Bollinger + Grohmann generated and optimized parametrically making the diagonals appear random and thus creating the typical "jackstraw" effect.