Bjarke Ingels’ firm has won a competition to design a 185-metre-high skyscraper in Frankfurt, with a proposal it describes as both classical and sculptural, a standing our building in the landscape’s architecture.

Less than a month after the firm ousted Foster + Partners from the Two World Trade Center project in New York, it has now been named winner in a contest to design a mixed-use tower in Frankfurt’s downtown financial district.

The building’ architectural design is conceived by BIG as a simple rectilinear form with two sculptural interventions.

Floorplates will be shifted at both at the base and the centre of the tower to mark clear boundaries between the building’s different functions, with sections dedicated to apartments, offices and public uses.

“By gently shifting the floorplates of the simple elegant volume, the tower incorporates all the elements of a real city: spaces for living and working, inside as well as outside,” explained Ingels.

“The result is a striking new silhouette on Frankfurt’s skyline that looks different purely because it performs differently,” he said. “The shift at the hip will be a sign that new life has infiltrated the cluster of corporate headquarters in downtown Frankfurt.”

Copenhagen- and New York-based BIG is partnering with Austrian engineering firm Bollinger + Grohmann on the project.

Their aim is to create a strong presence on the skyline, as well as a building that is welcoming at street level.