Hafencity Hamburg
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Client: City of Hamburg
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Lisbeth Westergaard, Karin Larson
Design phase: 2002-2003
Other SLA harbour projects
The water level in the new quarter Hafencity in Hamburg’s harbour varies greatly in the course of the day, over weeks and months, and in an annual cycle, where flooding is a major risk, and often happens. In a proposal for improvement of the relation between the harbour, the city spaces and buildings in the area, SLA focussed on the water as the most important attraction of the area and a catalyst for city life.
In the project the restrictions of the flooding were therefore turned from being something negative to something that could contribute to creating special, changing attractions. The offices and housing are placed at first floor height or above. The ground floors are completely accessible to the public as foyers to the buildings or as open city spaces, that merge with the rest of the street plan. The ground floors and the street thus become a public zone in the quarter.
When flooding occurs, pedestrians are led up to the first floor bridges which lead around the area. SLA proposed in addition two principle, physical interventions: Partly a dramatic landform along the quay that slopes in different directions and therefore can show the different levels of the tide and which invites activities inspired by the water. Partly a new landscape which at street level flows in and out among the buildings and shows different states of nature through a level of maintenance varying from ‘untouched’ nature to architecturally ordered city trees, as they are seen in Hamburg’s streets and city spaces.
After flooding the landscape changes and creates a completely different type of city space than in other places in Hamburg. This becomes a new contribution to the quarter. In the merging of nature and city the urban space becomes the basis for a new identity in Hamburg.
