Award recognises sustainable and liveable urban development
Frankfurt am Main has won one of Europe's most prestigious design awards with its new High-Rise Development Plan 2024 (HEP2024). The German Design Council honoured the concept in the Concept category with the ICONIC AWARD 2025. Together with the architectural firm AS+P Albert Speer + Partner GmbH, the city has created an instrument that strategically, quality-consciously and sustainably guides the further development of Frankfurt's skyline.
The award ceremony took place in October at BMW Welt in Munich – parallel to the Expo Real real estate fair. An international jury selected the winners from more than 560 submissions from 45 countries. Frankfurt impressed with a visionary approach that harmonises urban density, quality of life and sustainability.
Model for the vertical city
The 2024 high-rise development plan formulates comprehensive guidelines for integrated and liveable high-rise development for the first time. The focus is on the mutual influence of high-rise buildings and their neighbourhoods – a change of perspective that fundamentally renews Frankfurt's high-rise policy. The plan not only defines locations, but also shows how high-rise buildings can create social, ecological and urban planning added value: through mixed use, publicly accessible ground floors and greater openness to the neighbourhood. In this way, the principles of the European city – diversity, density and liveliness – are transferred to the vertical. N
"High-rise buildings that are good neighbours"
Frankfurt's Head of Planning Marcus Gwechenberger (SPD) sees the award as confirmation of the new direction:
"With the high-rise development plan, we are continuing the 2008 plan and setting new accents – both in terms of urban space and content," he said. "We want high-rise buildings that are good neighbours, open up to the city and offer public-intensive uses in the base area."
Gwechenberger particularly highlights the planned high-rise promenade along the ramparts between the theatre and the Old Opera House: an urban backbone with a high quality of life – "a piece of Central Park feeling in the middle of Frankfurt." Further clusters of high-rise buildings are to be built in the trade fair district and in Ostend around the European Central Bank.
Standards for quality and sustainability
With HEP2024, the city is setting binding quality and process standards for high-rise projects for the first time – from the project idea to competitions to citizen participation. The plan promotes buildings that are exemplary in ecological, economic and social terms and thus contribute to achieving Frankfurt's climate targets.
"The plan clearly shows what is important to us: developing the city in the interests of its people – with foresight, responsibility and in cooperation with many disciplines," emphasises Friedbert Greif, Managing Partner at AS+P. The award is an expression of the growing partnership between the city and planners.
International recognition
Frankfurt's approach is also attracting international attention. In its August 2025 issue, the trade magazine Tall Buildings described Frankfurt as "a European pioneer in sustainable high-rise strategy".
The ICONIC AWARD 2025 makes it clear that Frankfurt is not only making the skyline of the future taller, but also more conscious – as part of a cityscape that is set to grow and become more liveable at the same time.
