Cologne: Wholesale Market Hall

1935 – 1940

Architect: Theodor Teichen

Structural engineer: Ulrich Finsterwalder

Marktstrasse 10 d, Cologne, Germany

The listed Cologne wholesale market hall, designed from 1935 to 1940 according to plans by the architect and municipal senior building official Theodor Teichen, is distinguished by its pioneering concrete shell construction and modern design.

Construction

The arched roof shell, supported by beams standing in close succession, circumscribes a space 132 meters long and 57 meters wide.

Various construction companies were asked by the municipality of Cologne to design a structure with a column-free span of 57 meters. In addition, economical management of the hall and lighting from the north were required.

Dyckerhoff & Widmann

The contract was awarded to Dyckerhoff & Widmann, who, under the direction of the structural engineer Ulrich Finsterwalder, submitted a design for an elongated hall with a parabolic barrel vault and carried it out together with architect Theodor Teichen.

For the roof structure, Dyckerhoff & Widmann opted for a shell vault made of reinforced concrete with a thickness of eight centimeters according to the company’s own Zeiss-Dywidag system, which required particularly little steel.

Dyckerhoff had already used this design in the construction of the Frankfurt wholesale market hall in 1926 and the wholesale market halls in Leipzig (1927) and Basel (1929).

Interior

Lighting was provided by two staggered shed superstructures along the north side.

The interior of the Grossmarkthalle has an open floor plan with the vending area subdivided into stalls by orthogonally arranged roadways.

They are supplemented by two freight elevators, a restaurant, and an additional row of stores at the east end of the hall.

The side extensions contain administrative rooms and a stand area for fish wholesalers.

In October 1940 the wholesale market hall of Cologne was put into operation.