David Adjaye has revealed details of his largest ever project in Europe, a cultural campus in Frankfurt that will be home to nine arts institutions.

Adjaye was handpicked for the Kulturcampus Frankfurt job by Nikolaus Hirsch, who also brought Adjaye to the AA in 2003 while a lecturer there.

Hirsch is now dean of the Städelschule Architecture Class in Frankfurt and an adviser on the cultural campus project. The project marks the first major public commission for Adjaye’s Berlin office.

The practice has produced concepts for a mixed-use scheme on a 16.5ha site, which has been home to Frankfurt University but will become vacant in 2014.

The proposals include venues and training facilities for arts institutions including the Forsythe Company, the Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, the Academy of Music & Performing Arts and the Young German Philharmonic, bringing together nine organisations currently spread across the city.

Around half of the scheme will be devoted to cultural uses while the rest is proposed for a mix of offices, retail and residential. Adjaye’s concept is designed to sit within an earlier masterplan for the university site prepared by architectural practice K9.

Hirsch said: “The previous proposal was very much based on block-type urbanism. David has created a much more complex configuration which actually brings different functions together and provides an interlocking system. It’s a very smart intervention.”

The proposed campus uses a central foyer to provide a link between a range of uses and individual institutions.

Workshops have been held to discuss the concept with members of the public and are due to be presented to the City of Frankfurt next week with a decision about the project’s future due to be made shortly after.

AA mentor finds the right man for the job Nikolaus Hirsch has been something of a mentor to David Adjaye since asking him to join the Architectural Association teaching staff in 2003.

Two years later the pair graced the pages of BD in an interview which Adjaye conducted with Hirsch about his work. Hirsch explained his reasons for recommending Adjaye for the cultural campus project.

“David has a very wide knowledge of cultural institutions,” he said.

“And of course, Frankfurt is a very international city. The cultural campus initiative wanted a proposal to really open up the discussion to an international level.”