MSc2 joint Architecture+Urbanism project. Hamburg HafenCity.

Architecture & Urban Design

Elective MSc2 Comprehensive project Q4 – AR0067           

Tutors: Roberto Cavallo (Architecture), Maurice Harteveld (Urbanism)

In the contemporary city interventions need constantly to be grounded on sharp design approaches in order to respond adequately to the necessities of our times. Nowadays, we meet in public atria and shop in malls; we move along covered walkways and go from street to street by taking shortcuts through the buildings of a city block. All kinds of buildings hybridized and became multi-functional anchors. The railway stations are entangled with the urban tissue, airports have become cities, conference centres and world expos temporary change the urban composition, and museums are also leisure venues. In recent decades, the amount and proportion of public space within urban buildings has steadily increased. In addition, the amount and size of public buildings within the urban space increased too. However, still rarely designers approach the city as architecture or do they approach the building as urban design. In this design studio, architects and urban designers work together on the urban space as architectural space and on the architectural space as urban space.

The 2012 case city is Hamburg. In the Late Modern era, Hamburg led the way in designing the configuration of built forms and interstitial spaces as one. Actually especially a nineteen century European idea revived; the arcades had caught on in Hamburg as in no other European city. The public interiors became part of a larger network that included several constructions, forming the backbone of an extensive network of buildings. Urban design and architecture went hand in hand.   In the last years, this tendency changed. With HafenCity the disciplines are clearly divided again. In this thoroughbred master plan, the urbanists have defined the strategy and envisioned the blueprint and the architects have continued the process designing the buildings. Today, the time horizon of this project is misty. The edge of the plan, along the railway tracks, is phased as last - after 2025. This part is destined to be the creative and cultural quarter. Yet, there is no detailed design, little interest and hardly any claims. The only facility there, the new Universität für Baukunst und Metropolen-entwicklung, will leave soon to a new location. Then, this edge may be part of a much larger lost area. North of this part, tunnel ramps, grey-fields, wastelands and some obsolescent structures continue to dominate the area up to the city centre. Again there are no future designs. Only a series of old indoor public markets are claimed. In contrast with the planner’s vision, art societies have chosen to house here, not on the edge of HafenCity. The buildings are detached from the urban fabric, almost an inverse of the city centre. What to do next? Given the fact that the urbanisation slows and the disciplines diversify, how should urbanists and architects redefine the wedge between the new city, the railway yard and the centre?