Hamburg is Hanseatic and free
Hamburg is a city of merchants and sailors, and its entire history and typology are subject to this. Europe's largest port city on the Elbe was and remains an important transit and transshipment point on the trade route from London to Sweden and, more broadly, between East and West. It was founded by Charlemagne in the 7th century. as a fortress for protection from the northern Slavs, Hamburg still keeps its annals from May 1189, XNUMX, when the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa granted the inhabitants the right to collect customs duties on cargo transported by the Elbe.
Scheme of Speicherstadt, a warehouse quarter in the harbor of Hamburg, built at the end of the XNUMXth century. The developer of the ambitious project was engineer Franz Andreas Meyer
The special status of a free city, obtained in 1510, allowed Hamburg to become a huge wholesale market - the trade center of Europe. French and Rhine wines, linen fabrics and canvas from Silesia, steel and brass wire from Saxony, wood and grain from Brandenburg, copper utensils from Hungary were bought and sold here. And also goods from the North - dried fish, wool, skins, and from the East - porcelain, carpets and colonial goods.
The free city was open to enterprising people from all over the world. Calvinist refugees from the Netherlands traded in wool, velvet, and silk, while Jews from Portugal traded in sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cocoa. The first European coffee shops appeared in Hamburg, which today is reminded of by the bronze coffee bean, a sculpture installed on the Coffee Plaza in Hafencity. The stratum of craftsmen was not very large, but they supplied the market with locally produced goods - beer, honey, iron products, textiles.
The quays in Hamburg's old harbor, once used by the port, are today a mooring place for historic ships and pleasure boats. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
Hafencity's historic dams and wharves became the basis for new buildings
The Speicherstadt district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the main magnets for tourists visiting Hamburg. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
In the Middle Ages, the territory of the current Hafencity was located outside the fortress wall and was mainly used as pasture. Its current complex topography is explained by the fact that, after joining the city, these lands were used as a port and underwent many interventions: a network of artificial canals was built, coastal fortifications and dams were built to protect Hamburg from floods. After the first industrial revolution, dozens of factories and industrial workshops appeared in Hafencity, in addition to warehouses and a shipyard.
Speicherstadt for UNESCO
At the end of the XNUMXth century the transfer of the merchant fleet to container transportation caused a real revolution in port cities and in Hamburg in particular (read more about the transformation of cities near the water in the article "Bagnoli, Alicante, Rotterdam and Odessa. "Resort romance" of the city and the port» in volume #03 PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA). First, logistics changed — now merchant ships moored at the port for a short time, sufficient to unload containers with cranes.
Second, the need for storage facilities disappeared, but the need for open areas for stacking arose. And at the end of the 80s, the geopolitical situation also changed: the reunification of East and West Germany provoked a sharp economic rise, which for Hamburg meant an equally sharp increase in trade turnover. The old harbor no longer met the current technical requirements, and the city authorities began to discuss the issue of building a new port and deciding the fate of the Speicherstadt warehouse quarter in the northern part of Hafencity.
Eight residential and office buildings were built on the coastal fortifications in the Zandtorkai quarter, one of the first in Hafencity. The project of the Ocean's End complex was developed by the architects Böge Lindner K2 Architekten. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
The quarter was built on the border of the 20th and XNUMXth centuries. as a duty-free trade zone, after Hamburg obtained from iron chancellor Otto von Bismarck the return of free port status. The construction of the warehouse quarter was preceded by the merciless demolition of more than a thousand buildings with the resettlement of XNUMX residents to the outskirts of Hamburg.
Warehouses, administrative buildings and banks in the neo-gothic style made of red brick along the artificial canals were erected using a special technology - on oak piles. They were connected by arched steel bridges.
The Old Harbor is the main tourist attraction of Hamburg
The architectural complex of Speicherstadt was seriously damaged by bombing during the Second World War and required painstaking reconstruction, which lasted until 1967. The restorers restored the smallest details of the buildings, including the ornaments on the facades.
Until the 80s, the brick warehouses of Speicherstadt were used as Europe's largest storage of oriental carpets - the special temperature regime and humidity in these historic buildings were the best for preserving the expensive and delicate goods.
The historic floating lighthouse, which once guided ships into Hamburg's commercial port, is now used as a restaurant overlooking the Philharmonic building. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
All these years since the construction of the land and buildings of Speicherstadt have been owned by the city. In 1988, the Senate of Hamburg tried to vote on a project that provided for the privatization of real estate in the warehouse quarter. But this intention caused a series of public protests, after which the idea of privatization was abandoned. The quarter received the status of a protected Hamburg heritage site, and was later included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
A secret plan
It cannot be ruled out that the protests against the privatization of Speicherstadt in the late 80s preceded the secret Hafencity plan. Henning Faucherau, the mayor of Hamburg, drew attention to a new global trend — tired of the silence and monotony of old residential areas, people willingly moved to live and work in former industrial zones. The factories no longer made noise and did not pollute the air, just like the old port of Hamburg.
Areas of the old harbor have become suitable for conversion and potentially commercially attractive. At the same time, Hamburger Hafen- und Lagerhaus AG (HHLA), which manages the port, needed new land in Altenwerder and investment to build a container terminal.
The development of the Hafencity concept was disguised as an educational project
HHLA Director Peter Dietrich decided that a mutually beneficial agreement was possible between the corporation and the city, an exchange of land and real estate in the old harbor on the territory of Altenwerder, as well as investment from the city budget. Under conditions of strict secrecy, HHLA began to buy up warehouses in the old harbor. These were mainly abandoned industrial enterprises, and the owners were glad to get rid of them. If, of course, they knew the plans of the authorities on Hafencity, then they would pay for their old warehouses and empty astronomical sums! That is why the authorities resorted to what some might call deception or at least abuse of power and influence.
View of the Speicherstadt warehouse quarter. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
A precious musical instrument: the construction of the building of the Elbe Philharmonic by Herzog & de Meuron cost Hamburg 789 million euros. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
When all the real estate was concentrated in one hand, the mayor of Hamburg, Henning Faucherau, unofficially ordered the creation of a concept for the development of the Hafencity port area by one of the most influential German architects of the post-war period, Falkwin Marg. By the way, it was Marg who was the most active participant in the campaign to preserve the integrity of Speicherstadt. It can be assumed that even then he knew about Faucherau's long-term plans. In 1995, Marg taught urban planning at Aachen University. He disguised the development of the concept as an educational project, involved his assistants and students in the work.
The building of the Elbe Philharmonic is an ideal symbol of Hamburg in the XNUMXst century.
The presentation of the Hafencity revitalization project and its transformation into a new central mixed-use district took place in 1997 at the Übersee club at a party where the "fathers of the city" gathered. The moment was chosen extremely well, and Mayor Henning Foscherau received full support.
The real estate package "Harbour and City" was transferred to the new municipal company HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, which took over the management and development of the area. And HHLA received financial support and carte blanche to build a new terminal in Altenwerder. A few years later, the new container terminal was recognized as the most innovative port in Europe. Even in the post-crisis 2009, the annual turnover of HHLA amounted to 110 million euros.
The promenade of Hafencity and the central part of Hamburg is a continuous promenade. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
This story could be a great subject for a detective film, and it is possible that such a film will be made, at least it has already inspired the publicist and architectural critic Gert Koehler to create the book "The Secret HafenCity Project", which was published in 2017. Although the initiators of the project, Peter Dietrich , Henning Faucherau and Folkvin Marg did not directly violate the law, from the point of view of modern business and political ethics, in the era of transparency and participation, their actions balance on the border of what is permissible. However, the winners are not judged.
From the post-industrial zone to the flagship district
The international competition for the master plan of Hafencity, which was held in 1999, was won by a team of architects led by Case Christianse. He took as a basis the concept of Folkvin Marg, but made the area more rational, denser and more diverse, allowing each of the new plot owners to independently choose an architect to design a specific object (Read more in the article "Our waterfront. Business card of the city and space for everyone» in volume # 18 PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA).
Since the historic and protected Speicherstadt was part of HafenCity, it was decided to preserve and restore as much as possible the historic quay walls, administrative buildings and port administration, bridges and even the old port cranes. It became an accent object Elbe Philharmonic, built on the roof of a historic warehouse.
Today, Hafencity is considered Hamburg's flagship district, a catalyst for urban development that sets new standards for Europe. It is no coincidence that in 2006, the architectural university HafenCity Universität Hamburg was founded here, which, despite its youth, has already gained a reputation as an urban laboratory on a German scale. Der Spiegel, the German branch of Lloyd's and Unilever moved their headquarters here.
By 2025, 15 people will live in Hafencity
Hafencity offers tourists a lot of pastime scenarios: you can listen to music at the Philharmonic, drink coffee at the Coffee Plaza, sunbathe on the terraces, take a water walk along the harbor, look for treasures in the port museum-bazaar or the Maritime Museum, visit the miniature railway museum, relax in the Lozepark or Grassbrook Park, admire the cruise liners docked at the Massimiliano Fuksas Terminal.
It is planned that 2025 thousand people will live in Hafencity by 15. Currently, there are 4600 residents here. And although real estate prices in the area are even higher than in the center of Hamburg, the city is also building social housing for migrants, wanting to avoid Hafencity becoming a ghetto for the wealthy. About a third of the families are families with children for whom 6 kindergartens have already been opened. Pragmatic Germans are planning infrastructure with a margin for the future - by 2022, a new school campus and a family center will appear in Hafencity, the structure of which includes both a school and a kindergarten.
Since Hafencity is located outside Hamburg's main dam, all buildings and almost all streets are built on plinths with a height of 7,5 to 8 m. Shops, cafes and car parks are located on the basement floors. Basement walls are protected by waterproofing coatings, and doors and windows can be closed with waterproof shutters in case of flooding.
In the winter of 2019-2020, Hafencity continues to be actively developed. It is planned that all construction works in the district will be completed in 2025. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
But public spaces and embankments are inundated — the flood protection strategy is to give the river space to overflow, which will reduce the storm load on the city. With this in mind, Barcelona-based architecture studio EMBT designed the Magellan and Marco Polo terraces – with multi-level topography and massive built-in street furniture that should not be damaged by the Elba flood.
Local residents, in particular urban planners and architects, often criticize the architecture of new buildings in Hafencity. Authoritative architect Hadi Tehrani said in an interview with Der Spiegel that the new houses of Hafencity are inhabited mainly by expats, but native Hamburgers will not want to live in a dense area where their personal boundaries may be violated.
The very architecture of buildings and public places, according to Tehrani, often teeters on the edge of kitsch: "I really appreciate the architect Benedetta Tagliaba from the EMBT office in Barcelona (developers of the design of public spaces in Hafencity. — Ed.). But their lanterns, stylized as port cranes, and stone benches, imitating ocean waves, seem vulgar."
Hafencity's public spaces are periodically flooded
Hafencity square, named after ex-mayor Henning Faucherau, the initiator of the large-scale revitalization project of Hamburg's old harbor. Photo: Andriy Vyetoshkin
Critics believe that the eclecticism and globalism of this "city within a city" is at odds with the Anglophile elegance and restraint of Hamburg's authentic red-brick quarters. At the same time, the material embodiment of this dissonance — the building of the Elbe Philharmonic — has already become an ideal symbol for XNUMXst century Hamburg, a demonstration of almost limitless possibilities and continuity in architecture, when the historical layer serves as the foundation for a futuristic new one.
