Vierscheibenhaus – WDR Office Building at Appellhofplatz
The Vierscheibenhaus is a striking office building belonging to the West German Broadcasting (WDR) in Cologne's Altstadt-Nord district. Its interior is closed to the public, but the staggered building slabs are well worth viewing from the outside.
At Appellhofplatz 1 stands the Vierscheibenhaus, an administrative building of the WDR broadcaster that has been in operation since June 1970. As a working office of the station it is not open to visitors, yet its unusual shape makes it a rewarding piece of architecture to take in from the street.
Source: Wikipedia
At a Glance
- What
- Administrative building of the West German Broadcasting (no public interior access)
- Where
- Appellhofplatz 1, Cologne, Altstadt-Nord district
- Completed
- Construction started 1966, opened June 1970
- Architects
- Hubert Petschnigg and Helmut Hentrich
- Form
- Four laterally staggered building slabs, six to eight storeys, three basement levels
- Dimensions
- Overall length of the site 165 metres, tallest slab 30 metres (eight storeys)
- Notable
- Related to the Dreischeibenhaus in Düsseldorf by the same architects
History
After the Second World War, the WDR had its headquarters in the broadcasting house at Wallrafplatz, opened in 1952 by Federal President Theodor Heuss. When the station made public its plans in 1963 for development between Wallrafplatz and Appellhofplatz and along the Nord-Süd-Fahrt, the tower-like designs initially met with considerable opposition.
Following an agreement, the Vierscheibenhaus was built from 1966 onwards and entered service in June 1970. Over the following decades the WDR site continued to grow, adding among others the archive building above the Nord-Süd-Fahrt, the film house as a connecting structure, the WDR Arkaden (1991–1996) and, in 2012, a dedicated broadcasting building for the youth station 1LIVE. Renovations took place in 1999 and 2003.
Architecture
The name explains the concept: the building consists of four slabs standing side by side and shifted laterally against one another – best seen from the end face. The two central slabs largely overlap, while the two outer ones are shorter and offset outwards in opposite directions. Around a fifth of the total surface overlaps, and the site measures 165 metres in length.
Architects Petschnigg and Hentrich deliberately avoided competing with Cologne Cathedral's silhouette. The building recalls the Dreischeibenhaus in Düsseldorf, completed roughly ten years earlier by the same designers. Since August 2010 the complex has carried a photovoltaic system, and it is linked to the neighbouring buildings via the WDR Arkaden.
Surroundings
The Vierscheibenhaus sits in the heart of Cologne's media quarter around Appellhofplatz and forms part of a whole WDR ensemble. Its immediate neighbours include the film house, the archive building and the WDR Arkaden.
A look inside is not possible, but architecture enthusiasts should make their way to the end face of the building, where the staggered slabs come into their own. From here the interplay of the various WDR structures is easy to appreciate.
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Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-08-27
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