Published roughly every two years, this showcase of the Rhine-Main architectural region is once again an excellent documentation of major construction achievements realized since around 2024 in the greater Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, and Darmstadt areas. In the newly released 2026 edition, TEK TO NIK Architekten is featured with two of its most interesting projects. While it is available online for free, the printed editions are well worth it.

Worms-based publisher WV-Verlag has specialized in the German construction industry for 39 years and has since expanded its presence into Austria and Switzerland. Thanks to its comprehensive scope, “Architektur der Region im Spiegel”® provides a great impression of the industry’s economic vitality—even though recent years have been economically weak due to construction price inflation and rising interest rates. Accordingly, the current edition includes a 10-page business directory of all mentioned companies.

The two articles concerning us can be found on pages 86/87 and 135. The first covers the MAIN YARD project. There, we had been developing an urban planning solution for a “troubled neighborhood” (the Allerheiligenviertel) since 2010. This resulted in the design for an entirely new quarter built inside the center of an existing inner-city block of historical buildings.

The design was able to be so pioneering because the property owner, Hersch Beker, and the City of Frankfurt pooled their real estate holdings for a joint, comprehensive master plan. This demonstrates how vital a strategically active property policy is on the city’s part when the goal is to improve entire urban environments rather than just individual buildings. In 2018, development rights were taken over by the Munich-based OrT Group, which commissioned a+p Architekten with the realization.

The second article can be found on page 135 and focuses on the conversion and transformation of a dated and aesthetically unappealing office building into 154 apartments ranging from 22 to 110 square meters. Equipped with various additional on-site amenities and services, these units are rented out as temporary housing. MAIN VOLTA is owned by Munich-based International Campus GmbH and is now being successfully leased through their product brand HAVENS LIVING.