re-inState 2016

re-inState urban propositions for Bille/Veddel, City of Hamburg and Birkenhead, Liverpool City Region

Hamburg City Model, State Ministry for Urban Development and Housing, City of Hamburg, MArch Workshop Abroad October 2015

re-inState urban propositions for Bille/Veddel, City of Hamburg and Birkenhead, Liverpool City Region

12th January - 26th January 2016 Liverpool School of Art & Design John Lennon Art and Design Building Duckinfield Street Liverpool, L3 5RD

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contents Introduction

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Liverpool City Region & Hamburg Metropolitan Region

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Grow Your Own Garden City David Rudlin

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Three Contrasting Approaches to Urban Redevelopment in Hamburg Dirk Schubert

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Projects

Green Spaces

Networks

Neighbourhoods

Anchors

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site visit, Billerhuder Insel, looking west across Bille Lake to Hamburg city centre MArch Workshop Abroad October 2015

introduction This catalogue celebrates the work of our 2015 Master of Architecture Urban Design studio. Continuing the theme of recent years our postgraduate architecture programme has studied comparable urban places, one local, one European, promoting the exchange of ideas and experiences between ‘Second Tier’ port cities.

With the Liverpool City Region Devolution Agreement recently completed we have undertaken a study of Hamburg, a true city-state itself, being one of the 16 Federal States of Germany. The spatial and cultural similarities, and political and economic differences between Merseyside and Hamburg offer valuable territories of investigation. We have looked particularly at edge-of-centre conditions in both places, focusing upon Bille / Veddel in Hamburg and Birkenhead in Merseyside. Hamburg is a vigorous city, with clear strategies for its outlying districts, whilst Birkenhead has a complex relationship to both Liverpool and the Wirral. The studio outputs presented here for both places offer proposals responsive to these spatial, socioeconomic and political contexts.

I would like to thank the knowledgeable advisors from Hamburg and Merseyside that enriched the briefing stages of these projects and the tutors and guest critics that challenged and guided our students during the three month study period. Finally I would like to thank our sponsors, identified overleaf, who have made this publication possible and have shown their support for our students and for the continued debate on the future of our cities.

Ian Wroot, Architecture and Urban Design Programmes Leader

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Liverpool City Region | Hamburg Metropolitan Region This text provides contextual information for both of the urban design project locations. Whilst spatial similarities between the two sites are manifest in the drawn work, the economic and political differences between Merseyside and Hamburg are a fascinating and vital context for the studio work.

The study areas, between the port territories of the waterfront and residential communities inland, reveal spaces where the opposing conditions of local and global concerns are clearly exposed as particular, and increasingly divergent. The design work has come from an open studio with students determining their own particular response to the conditions found. With a sound understanding of the fundamental principles of place making and broad analysis of the socio-economic conditions, the design projects present a diverse range of response, some pragmatic some provocative.

Liverpool City Region

Introduced in England outside Greater London by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, a Combined Authority is a type of local government institution aiming to improve transport, economic development and regeneration. In order to emerge from its experience as a “shrinking city” of the post industrial era, Liverpool City Region (comprised by Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton) needs to deal with the low levels of productivity and business formation and relatively high levels of unemployment.

Despite its historical heritage, the industrial belt of the city region has suffered by the loss of important manufacture activities, including the major reduction of shipbuilding at Birkenhead. These structural causes of economic decline inevitably influenced the population which fell by 14% in Liverpool and Knowsley, and by 9% in Sefton and Wirral between 1981 and 2000.

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Despite this rather unpromising historical economic trajectory, there have been numerous efforts to “regenerate” Liverpool’s economic, physical and social fabric. The authority of Liverpool City Region, subject to the collaboration of public bodies and national agencies, sets out the way to implement the national coalition governmental programme of the “localism” (2010). The empowerment of local structures (e.g. City Region Mayor) offers the scale required to plan and provide services in order to overcome the administrative fragmentation between the conurbation’s local authorities.

Looking ahead, prioritising the attraction of overseas investment to the Atlantic Gateway will re-establish the River Mersey as a portal to Atlantic trade routes. In this sense, the property-led regional developer Peel Holdings is proposing two major schemes within it’s Ocean Gateway strategy; Wirral Waters and Liverpool Waters. These Enterprise Zone sites, based around the north docks area of Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks along with another at Sci-Tech Daresbury (Halton) and five Mayoral Development Zones within Liverpool,

aerial images to scale depicting Liverpool City Region and the Federal State of Hamburg

Source City Relationships: Economic Linkages in Northern city regions Liverpool City Region, The Northern Way, report, 2009.

plan to attract commercial and service sector employment on a large scale, providing a complementary offer to that of the commercial/retail/leisure district of Liverpool city centre.

Other strategies, notably various Strategic Investment Frameworks for parts of the region highlight the need to maintain the environmental and cultural progress recently made to ensure continuing improvement in the ‘liveability’ / quality of life and overall desirability of the region as a place to live and work.

Hamburg Metropolitian Region

Source Urban-rural relationships in metropolitan areas of influence, Ministry of Economy, Transport and Innovation, report, 2011.

Many major European cities have recently formed or are in a process of forming a new type of coalition with their neighbouring peri-urban and rural areas on equal terms and for mutual benefit, the so-called Metropolitan Regions. After their official adoption as part of the German spatial development strategy in 2005, the principal functions of the Metropolitan Regions are related to spatial concentration of economic centres, presence of research centres and of a creative and competitive milieu, accessibility to and from international locations and good traffic infrastructures.

Established in the 1950s, the idea of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (comprised by four federal states) enables cooperation of the city-state of Hamburg and the governments of the neighbouring federal states in order to harness the strengths and the advantages of the greater Hamburg region. This policy aligns with the German urban system of a distributed network of cities with different specialisation and advantages. The financial prosperity of Hamburg as a wholesale and media centre explains the on-going urban development of the city, a city that has experienced a long history of social tension with urban regeneration efforts. Redevelopment projects have often attracted protests because of the segregation

and gentrification processes that they generate. Despite high rates of vacancy in industrial and office space, the difficulty to find affordable housing and workspace led the city to establish participatory processes with the community (‘A Quarter for Everyone’ in Hamburg-Altona) and develop ways to educate youth and prepare them for workforce opportunities.

Projects such as the International Building Exhibition (IBA) development in Hamburg/Wilhelmsburg - a series of urban planning initiatives, and HafenCity - a recent redevelopment project regarded as a showcase for major international urban schemes, illustrate the Federal legislation aiming to strengthen and develop areas in city centres, district centres, residential neighbourhoods and business parks (Baugesetzbuch, §171f BauGB, 2007). The responsibility of the Federal States to decide locally the operational details of such projects highlights the flexibility of devolved powers to define and orient strategic development schemes.

Confronted with the relative growth of the population, largely due to immigration (29% of the existing population has a migrant background), Hamburg plans to provide “more city in the city”. Another strategy 'Hamburg Green Network' could revolutionise it’s urban form with the implementation of a citywide plan designed solely for cyclists and pedestrians, linking the suburbs with the city centre and connecting to parks and playgrounds.

Greater detail on the spatial implications of Hamburg’s growth strategies are provided in the proceeding essay by Dr Dirk Schubert.

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Grow Your Own Garden City David Rudlin ‘Garden Cities’ are a persistent idea in English development, and the green credentials of Liverpool City Region and particularly the Wirral have been made apparent in both the analysis and design work of our studio projects. The first few student projects presented in this catalogue have in particular considered the potential of green space in their proposals.

We are delighted that David Rudlin will be speaking during our urban design exhibition, as he has recently looked at his Garden City ideas in relation to the larger English Core Cities. He has kindly allowed republication of this article which provides a summary of his recent work on this topic.

How we doubled the size of Uxcester

In 2014 URBED won the Wolfson Economics prize which asked the question; how can we solve the housing crisis by building garden cities that are visionary, popular and viable.

Most of the entries concentrated on building new garden cities in the countryside in the spirit of Ebenezer Howard and the New Towns Programme. By contrast, our essay suggested that rather than build free standing garden cities, we should be expanding existing towns and cities. We did this because the world has changed since the days of the new towns.

These were built mostly with council housing at a time when labour markets were self contained and when there was huge public subsidy available. Today’s economy is much more interconnected and based on knowledge industries. To quote our essay; “rather than growing a Garden City as a fragile sapling that will take decades to mature, we should graft it onto the strong rootstock of an existing place”. Somewhere that already has a university, mainline railway station, a strong town centre and full set of facilities - somewhere like Uxcester.

Uxcester doesn’t exist of course; it is an amalgam of a number of towns with populations of around 200,000 (although the plan 4

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is based on York). Like York and indeed Oxford, Uxcester is currently growing at around 1%/ year which involves building just under 1,000 homes. This is causing great difficulties since the town has little urban capacity, its administrative boundaries are tightly drawn with all the easy sites having been allocated some time ago so that the town is pushing up against its green belt. The response as in many towns, is to undertake a SHLAA (Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment), exploring the incremental release of slivers of green belt, the growth of the surrounding towns and villages and the release a couple of large sites beyond the green belt.

Our solution was to suggest that Uxcester should grow not by 1% but by around 2.5% a year, thereby doubling in size over

30 years through a process of positive planning. Rather than nibbling around the edges of the green belt we suggested that we should instead take three confident bites to build garden city extensions of around 25,000 homes. These would be large enough to fund a tram system for the entire city, to cover the costs of infrastructure and to create 3,000 hectares of country park. Furthermore they would remove the need to expand every town and village, thereby relieving pressure and potentially opposition elsewhere in the county. We showed that it would require the purchase of 6,000ha of land (half of which would become open space) which accounted for less than 10% of the green belt. Much of our essay was devoted to describing

how this would be done through local authorities bidding to be given the powers to establish Garden City Foundations that would have the powers to CPO land at existing use value plus compensation.

The Foundations, which would also have planning powers, would service the land, provide the infrastructure and then sell off plots to developers and individuals. A major part of our essay related to what we called ‘open-source’ planning allowing plot-based self and custom-build housing and small-scale builders to participate alongside the volume housebuilders (but that is not my subject today). We assumed that the land would re-inState 2016

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be bought in at £200,000/ha and that the serviced plots would be sold at £2.3M/ha which was the average UK residential land value at the time and represented £50-90,000/plot. The difference between these figures – what Ebenezer Howard called the unearned increment – amounted to around £4.5 Billion to spend on infrastructure and social housing.

system dysfunctional and allowing housing consents to leek out through the appeal process, both national and local politicians can say they voted against development.

Meanwhile we massively under-provide the housing that we need, even in strong markets, and the housing that does gets built is effectively unplanned.

Why the planning system makes no sense

The Unearned Increment

Despite the positive feedback about the Uxcester model, the planning system does not allow such urban developments.

On the one hand there are planning authorities who are desperately trying to prepare plans that will survive the Examination In Public (something that only half of the UK’s planning authorities have managed). Their plans are supported by reams of evidence, collected with no particular purpose other than as a shield to fend off the inevitable challenges that will be directed at them as part of the planning process.

On the other hand there is the planning industry by which I mean land agents, developers, planning consultants, lawyers, barristers (many of who are in this conference), who make a living trying to unlock land from the planning system by looking for weaknesses that can get the plan thrown out and allow their clients to promote their sites.

Then there are the politicians who at the local level don’t really understand the system, but do know that their constituents are against new housing. At the national level we have abolished regional planning leaving no mechanism to plan for our housing need other than the requirement to provide a five year housing supply and a duty to cooperate. A city like Oxford with a desperate housing need but with tightly-drawn boundaries to four neighboring authorities of different political complexions therefore has no way of addressing its need. Every politician, be they from the left or the right, believes that talking about the green belt is political suicide so that there is no meaningful political debate about this issue other than exhortations that they will build more homes. One might almost think that the politics of housing is not about increasing supply but about avoiding blame. By devolving power to the local level, national government absolves itself of blame. By making the planning 6

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The problems with the planning system have been put down to recent changes such as the abolition of regional planning but the reality is that they go much deeper. My colleague and fellow author Nicholas Falk has spent years leading study tours to Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia to study planning and housing development. It is clear that there exists a huge gulf between the effectiveness of planning and the quality of housing in these countries compared to the UK. At the heart of this is the value of land. In the UK the average price of agricultural land is £15-20,000 / ha whereas the average cost of fully serviced land with consent for housing is £2.3-2.5M/ha. This differential is what drives the industry of planners, consultants and, yes lawyers because there is far more money to me made from securing a planning consent than there is from building good quality homes and neighborhoods. The systems vary, but in northern Europe the value of land allocated for housing is pegged at its agricultural value plus compensation for the land owner. The balance of the value generated by the scheme is therefore available to spend on infrastructure such as trams and schools, green spaces and the quality of the homes. In the UK the value generated by the development residualises in the land.

Because of this much of the talent and energy in the UK planning system is directed at unlocking this value, where as in northern Europe talent and energy is directed into creating a good scheme because that is where the money is made (just like our urban masterplans!).

Having sunk such large sums into the land, the UK system must limit what it spends on the housing. What is more surprising is when the local authority comes calling for S106 of CIL contributions to pay for the infrastructure, the

developer will argue that it will make the scheme unviable.

Meanwhile the system is funded by the tax payer, as we have to pick up the tab for the schools, public transport and other infrastructure that the developer can’t afford. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. In the late 1940s the planning system was based on the nationalisation of development land rights. The state paid compensation at the time to land owners for the removal of their development rights. In theory at least, the uplift in value that comes from development (Howard’s ‘Unearned Increment’) is a state asset that we are giving away every time planning consent is granted and asking for very little in return. The original planning system included provision for a ‘betterment’ tax for the state to claw back this value. We never managed to make the system work - at one point betterment was set at 90% and development ground to a halt. Eventually we gave up on the system and left it to general taxation. In its place we got Section 106 agreements and more recently CIL, neither of which capture sufficient value to cover infrastructure costs and which have not affected the value of land.

Pretty much all of the 272 submissions for the Wolfson Prize suggested mechanisms for land value capture. It is widely accepted that this is essential if we are to fix our planning system – while also being politically impossible.

Before the 2015 election Sir Michael Lyons undertook a review of housing and planning policy for the Labour Party.

URBED’s essay proposed Garden City Foundations with CPO and planning powers to assemble the land at existing use value plus compensation. You may think our proposals are hopelessly naive and unrealistic, but this is how we built all of our new towns and indeed how the Olympic Delivery Authority assembled the land for the 2012 Games. People cite the 1974 case in Milton Keynes that determined that compensation had to include hope value reflecting what the land could have been used for had the new town not been designated. This might make it difficult to CPO land that is already allocated for housing, or has a good prospect of being allocated. However there is a huge amount of land around our towns and cities that is regarded as having no development value because it is in the green belt which is where our proposals would apply.

Where should we build?

Which brings us to the issue of the green belt. The expansion cities was in the past limited by accessibility since people needed to live within walking distance of their place of work.

The advent of mass public transport in the inter-war years allowed development to spread outwards along roads and around suburban railway stations. Much of this took place on land bought at not much more than agricultural value and there was no planning system to be negotiated raising early concerns about sprawl.

Green Belt was designated around Sheffield as part of Abercrombie’s plan for the city in 1938. The same year an act of Parliament was passed to create the London Green Belt and since then green belts have been designated around all of the main English conurbations as well as York, Oxford, Cambridge and Cheltenham. This has been very effective at stopping the outward expansion of cities (although it is worth noting that sprawl has also been checked in places like Norwich that has no Green Belt). Green belts became part of a national policy to control the growth of cities which also included slum clearance and the new town programme.

This worked pretty well through the 1950s to the 1970s a period in which the State played a major role in the provision of new housing. The 1980s saw the rise of the volume housebuilders and renewed concerns about sprawl. Large suburban developments like Bradley Stoke in Bristol were caught up in the negative equity recession of the early 1990s when it became known as ’Sadly Broke’. However throughout this period green belt policy held firm leading to a process of counter-urbanisation as housebuilding leapfrogged the green belt. During this period the large cities lost substantial amounts of population to this outward migration leading to urban decline but also problems of congestion as people tried to drive from their distant housing estate to their jobs in the city. The response to this was initially for jobs and retailing to disperse to out-of-town business parks and shopping centres. It could be said that during this period the green belt was no longer preventing sprawl, but rather distorting the way that sprawl took place by pushing development even further away from cities.

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up with the situation found in Detroit today where massive urban sprawl and central urban collapse exist in the same city. However in the mid 1990s the conservative government under the Secretary of State John Selwyn Gummer started to introduce policies to encourage housing to return to urban areas. As part of this a target was introduced requiring 60% of housing to be built on brownfield land within urban areas. This was picked up by the Labour Government and at the end of the 1990s the Urban Task Force and a range of pro urban policies changed the dynamic of urban Britain. Since that time all of the large cities in the UK have grown (Manchester grew by 19% between 2001 and 2011). This was a result in a boom in urban apartments as housebuilders turned their attentions from suburban housing to urban sites and new players like Urban Splash emerged. The level of housing built on brownfield land peaked at 81% in 2008 but despite the strong housing market the number of homes built remained below 200,000 a year (where as our projected need is around 240,000 homes a year).

Greenfield housing development pretty much came to a halt and the housing that would have been built on green field didn’t transfer to brown fields, it just didn’t get built at all.

Following this we had the Credit Crunch and then the Coalition Government came to power, abolishing the 60% target for brownfield development. It also abolished all of the regional mechanisms for planning housing growth. These mechanisms had taken regional population projections, converted them to housing requirements and allocated these to each planning authority. It wasn’t a perfect system but it worked. Without it we have a situation where local authorities are expected to self-assess their housing need and provide for it over five years while planning over 20 years. If they can’t do this they are to cooperate with their neighboring authorities to take their overflow housing, but the neighbors have no obligation to do this. It is a flawed process that has undermined the workings of the planning system. It means that housing allocations accrete field by field around every town and village, small enough to get through the system but too small to be sustainable or to contribute to infrastructure costs. Elsewhere housing policy is determined through the appeal process as developers promote sites in the face of opposition for the planning system leading to the problems that we have today.

So where should we be building new housing? We need a 8

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national policy that is capable of building 250,000 homes a year and this is going to require a mix of green and brownfield sites. From URBED’s perspective we probably should be building 60% of new housing within urban areas. There are some in the CPRE and on the political right who argue that we could build all of our housing on brownfield land. This is unfortunately not possible, but 60% can be achieved as an average across the country and we need policies to facilitate this. However this means that 40% of housing should take place outside urban areas on green fields. It is not sensible to push this beyond the green belt into locations that can only be served by car. As I have said, rather than nibbling around its edges we should be building the 40% by taking a ‘confident bite’ out of the green belt so that we can build on a scale that can create a sustainable settlement. In the final part of this paper I want to explore these two aspects of housing provision starting with a confident bite out of Oxford’s green belt and then looking at the brownfield capacity of Sheffield.

Taking a confident bite out of Oxford’s Green Belt

There are many towns and small cities in the UK that cannot accommodate 60% of their housing growth within their urban area. These are generally popular places, with populations of 60-200,000 people, strong town centres, often a university and a cathedral along with a range of cultural institutions. They are all facing pressures for growth and have limited capacity for housing within their urban area while the boundary of the district is drawn very tightly allowing little room for outward expansion.

Oxfordshire has identified a need for 100,000 homes over 20 years and the City of Oxford is feeling particular pressures. It has some scope for development within its area but nowhere need the homes that it needs. Yet it is surrounded by four rural authorities whose boundaries run along the back garden fences of the homes around the edge of the city. The current strategy in Oxfordshire is to expand surrounding towns like Didcot and Bicester. There is a role for this but the problem is that Oxford has a chronic congestion problem and building

beyond its green belt without public transport to get people into the centre only makes matters worse. Our Uxcester model suggests that the optimum zone for development is within 10km (or a 20 minute tram ride) of the centre of the town. In our view Oxford should be building up to 50,000 homes in this zone, half of the County total. The Uxcester model suggests four smaller urban extensions in Oxford’s 10km zone of 10-15,000 homes south of Grenoble Road, North of Barton as well as the expansion of Abingdon and Kidlington. The development of these extensions would capture part of the value of the land to fund their infrastructure needs, to create publicly accessible open space and crucially to fund a tram system.

Maximising the potential of Sheffield

The Sheffield conurbation (which includes Rotherham) is four times the size of Uxcester with a population of just over 800,000 people in 350,000 households. In Uxcester we proposed doubling the size of the city over 30 years by building 85,000 new homes (70,000 outside the urban area).

Sheffield’s SHLAA has estimated that there is only brownfield capacity for 20,000 new homes within the city. We decided on a target of 100,000 homes over 20 years, allowing the city to pursue a growth agenda.

Towards a planning system that does make sense

Our experience following our Wolfson win has caused us to explore the planning and housing delivery system in the UK and our work in Oxford and Sheffield has allowed to suggest some solutions. We know that regional planning remains a dirty word but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that population growth and housing needs cannot be dealt with effectively at the district level - there has to be a mechanism to coordinate these issues at a larger scale. This is happening incrementally, Greater Manchester has established a Combined Authority that us developing a single plan covering its 10 local authorities. As part of this they are projecting to re-inState 2016

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deliver more than 10,000 homes a year and there is pressure in the conurbation to increase this figure. In Birmingham the responsibility has been given to the Birmingham and Solihull LEP that is coordinating a process to accommodate the conurbation’s growth requirements, however there is a need to export housing growth even from this area which is causing tensions. Something similar is happening in Greater London where the GLA need to export housing to the surrounding districts - in part because they view the green belt as being off limits.

Once we have developed a system to assess and allocate housing growth we need to create a planning system that can plan this growth at the local level. This needs to include the promotion by local planning authorities of both significant extensions into the green belt as we have suggested in Oxford and large, in-town urban villages as we have suggested in Sheffield. We need to enable local authorities to coordinate this large scale development (because it will always be to big for any one developer), to assemble the land where necessary and to

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pool land ownerships elsewhere, to coordinate the planning process and to capture a proportion of the land value to invest in communal infrastructure. Various mechanisms have been suggested for this, in our Wolfson Essay we suggested Garden City Foundations and others have suggested a revival or urban development or new town corporations. The previous Government announced a series of pilot Housing Growth Zones in March this year with access to a loan pot of ÂŁ200 Million focused on brownfield land. The hope is that this can be grown into something that allows a much more concerted approach to the planning of our towns and cities. It is something that most people involved in the process agree to be necessary and it is not greatly different to what we have done in the past. It therefore is a mystery to me that when you talk about these issues the whole thing is regard as being idealistic and unrealistic!

David Rudlin - URBED August 2015

Three Contrasting Approaches to Urban Redevelopment and Waterfront Transformations in Hamburg Dr. Dirk Schubert This essay provides an overview of the most notable redevelopment strategies that Hamburg has implemented in recent years. The detail included gives useful context for both the student project work presented elsewhere in this catalogue, and for consideration of what similar conditions and initiatives could be considered for the Liverpool City Region.

Hamburg is the site of Europe’s second largest port and is a tidal seaport city on the estuary of the River Elbe, 100 kilometres upstream from the North Sea. Hamburg’s topography is shaped by the confluence of the smaller River Alster and its tributaries that flow into the Elbe. The city is characterised by Lake Alster in its middle and a port with ocean liners on the Elbe. The city-state Hamburg is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, which covers a settlement and economic area on both sides of the river Elbe of approximately 20,000 km2 containing about 4.5 million inhabitants and 1.9 million employees. The functional interdependencies in the region can easily be understood by studying commuter patterns. Reflecting this regional interdependency, governance is based on the voluntary participation of three German federal states- Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, and Hamburg. In addition, 14 counties from Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony are members of an informal “common sense” strategy for the metropolitan region based on the Regional Development Concept (REK Hamburg 2000).

As the metropolis and core of a region, Hamburg offers an

outstanding technical, social, and knowledge infrastructure.

However, the Hamburg Metropolitan Region not only has to strengthen itself within the region, acting “from the region for the region”, but also has to compete with other regions of Germany and Europe. Therefore border-crossing alliances and networks of large-scale partnerships with other regions and among the three federal states have to be contracted.

In addition, as the economy of the region grows, several challenges needed to be resolved at a regional, national and global scale.

One challenge is to meet the demand of the metropolitan housing market where there is a need for more suitable housing for the growing number of one- and two-person households and for older buyers, who are likely to choose quality over quantity. A 2004 forecast predicted that the city can gain an additional 80,000 inhabitants or 60,000 households by 2020. Altogether, Hamburg should have a positive balance of migration, with a focus on 15 – 30 year olds. The city offers attractive housing, employment, and education to this group, thus presenting an appealing living space. By contrast, the balance of migration within the surrounding suburban area is still negative, but it is declining. To capture this housing market, substantial attention will need to be paid to improving the available housing stock and creating new housing for present inhabitants, young families, and newcomers. re-inState 2016

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At the same time, the sites to accommodate this demand were effected by restricted land availability. Unless this spatial imbalance was resolved there was a good possibility that many future commuters might end up living and paying their taxes in the suburban villages and towns not in Hamburg where they work.

Another regional challenge is the expansion of the port of Hamburg. Without regional cooperation, the city would be unable to provide space and accommodations to capture all of the demand. An example of this type of cooperation is “Süderelbe AG”, a public private partnership which was established to promote the mutual development of the regional competence cluster, i.e. “port and logistics”, “aviation industry (Airbus/EADS)” and others associated with the synergies between science and research facilities of the region. The goal of this project was to secure a high-quality location and quality of life for the almost 30,000 companies and the 800,000 inhabitants of the Süderelbe region. Their order reads “strengths strengthen” for growth, creation of value, and jobs.

The port also represented a great opportunity. As older less efficient port facilities began to decline, these areas represented potential redevelopment opportunities gifted with waterfront views.

Additionally, there are the national and global issues which might ensue from climate change, global warming, and climate protection are important City and metropolitan topics. Hamburg accepts this challenge with a broad climate protection concept, which is interdisciplinary, integrative, and has a regional aspect.

It relies on active management of spatial resources, taking into account the increasing conflicts of use and the need for economical and sustainable land use in the port area and the region.

Therefore, regional marketing and internationalisation are therefore the new key projects of a metropolitan region. Socalled “soft” location factors like quality of life and regional image are becoming increasingly important for successful economic development. The HafenCity and the IBA are two important examples of this.

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Beginnings of redevelopment: “String of Pearls”

After the end of the Cold War, Hamburg regained its central position as the most eastern port on the North Sea and as a gateway to the Baltic Sea. Most of the port is owned by the city of Hamburg and is governed by the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA). The port is perceived as part of the urban infrastructure, and capital investments in quays and harbour basins, and the maintenance and dredging of the shipping channel are important transactions in the city’s budget.

The waterfront along the northern shore of the Elbe in Altona, with splendid views towards the shipyards and ocean liners, plays a special role in Hamburg. The idea of upgrading of this waterfront area raised high expectations. New uses had to be found, identification points created, and attractions for citizens, visitors, and tourists established. Revitalising measures on the waterfront were expected to have a positive impact on the city. The best locations were presented to companies and investors looking for new sites. A catchy name was found for the zone: “String of Pearls”. It was assumed that applying a coherent strategy for the whole area would be difficult, but that a string of spectacular projects based on a market-led approach would generate enough interest and, consequently, higher land values to upgrade the area.

Most of the new projects are office buildings that include ground-floor restaurants. The long periods of time that pass from riverfront sites falling derelict to surveys, designs, and implementation works are due to different reasons specific to each project. The implementation of projects was not strictly governed by planning requirements, but by the availability

of plots and developers’ interests as well as investment considerations that originated from different periods and planning contexts. The metaphor of the “string of pearls” suggests that there had been an urban planning concept, but it was not coined until the project was already under way. More than two decades after the start of the retrieval of public access to the waterfront, a promenade along the river connects the different parts of the transformation.

A giant step: Hafencity The approach for HafenCity differs from the “string of pearls”. It is the most important urban redevelopment project in Hamburg – the most significant reclamation of the (outer) city centre for housing in Germany – and one of the largest projects of its kind in Europe. The HafenCity re-establishes the connection between the River Elbe and the city centre, giving Hamburg a new direction for growth: down to and along the river. HafenCity extends from the Speicherstadt (Warehouse District), to the Elbbrücken, the bridges across the river. For the first time, a large area is being taken from the port area and put to other uses. The existing site covers approximately 155 hectares of both old and new operational port facilities. It is surrounded by several neglected housing estates, the wholesale market, industry, port facilities, and railway lines.

Begun in the late 1990s, HafenCity is the most important urban redevelopment project in Hamburg. Hamburg has adopted a plan-led, mixed-use approach for HafenCity. Following a competition for a Masterplan, specific districts were designed with a focus on offices, housing, shopping, and recreation. In a way, HafenCity is a latecomer project, where planners tried to avoid the mistakes of other waterfront revitalisation projects like mono structures in the London Docklands. Approximately 5.500 apartments for 10.000 to 12.000 inhabitants were planned, with projections for required social infrastructure, such as schools and community centres, based on these figures. The area is within the Elbe flood plain, making built and organisational solutions for the protection of people and buildings indispensable.

The Masterplan (2000) specifies the phased implementation of developments in sub-districts. It lays down the principal

development sequence from west to east, avoiding uncontrolled construction activities throughout the development area. A zoning plan for HafenCity’s first phase was drawn up in 2000, and land sales started in 2001. A development agency was devised in 2002, and the first buildings were completed by 2004. The newly founded GHS (Gesellschaft für Hafen- und Stadtentwicklung GmbH, later HafenCity Hamburg GmbH) is responsible for the area and the implementation of its projects. A typical quango (Quasi autonomous nongovernmental organization) was set up to hasten development, and soon owned most of the land.

The federal state government fosters opportunties for growth in Hamburg and its metropolitan region (“Metropolis Hamburg – a Growing City”), HafenCity being its flagship project. In 2006, plans for the future centre (Überseequartier) of HafenCity were finalised. Construction of the characteristic mixed-use development began in 2007, starting with a new metro line. In 2004, a temporary cruise terminal received its first passengers at Hamburg. The world financial crisis caused some delays and office space vacancies in the Überseequartier. Implementation of the southern part of the commercial heart of HafenCity was halted, and a new developer must be found. The overwhelming demand for (affordable) housing can lead to more housing projects.

In 2008, the Maritime Museum was opened in Speicher B (Warehouse B). The most spectacular project is a concert hall (Elbphilharmonie) on top of Speicher A (Warehouse A). This landmark project has attracted a good deal of international attention, not only because of the spectacular architecture but also because of rapidly increasing costs and delays in construction work. In the planning and construction phase, it became a distinctive international new trademark of the city.

An updated Masterplan for the eastern part of HafenCity was decided on in 2010. Three districts with a variety of uses are in the pipeline: the Baakenhafen neighbourhood will be used for different types of housing and recreation; Oberhafen will be transformed into a creative and cultural district, where existing older warehouses will be reused, and sport facilities right by the water will be provided; and the most eastern district, Elbbrücken neighbourhood, will be the entrance gate with higher buildings and a mix of offices as well as residential and shopping facilities. re-inState 2016

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IBA, IGS and the “Leap Across The River” The river island Wilhelmburg with the area “Leap across the River Elbe”, and the district Harburg are especially affected by the transit traffic. The separation of neighbourhoods by traffic roads and the noise exposure by road, rail, and air traffic have become a reality in many other parts of the city. Future important tasks for urban development are to find solutions that meet the desires of city residents for a better quality of life and simultaneously take into account the economic development of the city. So this is a special opportunity for Hamburg to move forward within an experimental scope during the preparations for the Internationale Bauausstellung IBA Hamburg (International Building Exhibition) and the International Garden Show 2013 (IGA), where many involved parties are integrated in a future discussion about sustainable solutions for urban development.

A new urban connection is planned from the city centre north of the river via HafenCity across the Elbe to Wilhelmsburg to Harburg Riverport and the south. Amidst these poles and bridge heads, Wilhelmsburg Mitte is expected to develop into a new centre. But most importantly, the Reiherstieg, canals, and the watercourses in Wilhelmsburg should become its new “life veins”. Wilhelmsburg will become the focus of iconic urban design projects. The strategy also includes a more regional perspective, “Leap across the River Elbe” that is planned to 14

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improve the housing and living conditions within the area. The exhibitions are both intended to speed up the step-by-step approach to regeneration.

Stretches along Reiherstieg and the southern banks of the Norderelbe are still mainly taken up by port-related and industrial uses, while the eastern side has a range of different residential neighbourhoods. Flood control structures and noisy transport arteries crossing Wilhelmsburg lend it the character of a transit space. Conflicts between port uses, new terminals, the relocation of the dock railway, the crossharbour link (Hafenquerspange), and new residential areas are inevitable. It is assumed that the “Leap across the Elbe” is a task that will span one century, occupying at least two generations. The IBA is not a classical building exhibition, but a demonstration project for new ideas of participation and planning procedures.

The main topics are, briefly: Cosmopolis: Social inclusion, cultural diversity, improvements of education, and concepts for an international urban society; Metrozones: Concepts for fragmented uses and development of inner edges of the city; Cities and climate change: Concepts for a sustainable metropolis, demonstration of environmentally friendly, renewable energy using own resources.

On the IBA Dock, a floating exhibition and office dock, the plans and models can be visited. Topics and goals for the

future of metropolis can be explored as well the current status of IBA projects. All projects with an IBA certificate will be evaluated for criteria such as distinctiveness, feasibility, project capability, and structural effectiveness. By this project-led, experimental, and incremental approach the IBA hopes to generate a valorisation for the total island Wilhelmsburg in the long run.

Reflections on further projects for the future

Plans for the transformation of derelict waterfront sites in Hamburg started with a project and an architecture-led incremental approach along the northern river bank. Conflicts arising between urban and port development were dealt with case by case among the authorities and stakeholders.

Rapid implementation of building projects was the prime goal. HafenCity implied a jump in scale and a more complex implementation strategy formulated with the city as a developer and a project embedded in urban perspectives of inner-city extension. HafenCity is a more plan-led and proactive approach, while improvements and updates of the plan related to changes in the office and housing market were possible. In 2000, the implementation phase was predicted to last about 25 years.

The “Leap across the River Elbe”, on the other hand, reorganised urban perspectives for the entire city. Using architectural projects, the geographical centre of Hamburg will be moved from the periphery into a new centre by means of a di- verse range of projects and plans that are part of a long-term strategy. Initially, the existing building stock will be selectively enhanced and distinct innovative projects incorporated into an overall urban design concept that will restructure the interface between port and city. The upgrading of Wilhelmsburg will take many decades and must be balanced between requirements of the local inhabitants for affordable housing and dangers of partial gentrification.

The flagship projects are an integral part of their respective national planning cultures, urban regional housing and office markets, and globally established real estate and project management structures. At the same time, they

document perspectives of European urban development from monocentric to polycentric (regional) cities. Although the ambivalence, fragmentation, and social polarisation continue to be significant on a small scale, they are embedded in large spatial contexts.

Spatial planning has thus gained in significance. Although city marketing is primarily concerned with landmark projects by “star” architects, they are now nothing more than important components within the whole city. The implementation of integrated and sustainable regional and spatial planning policies on the other hand is linked to different political traditions and planning cultures. Countries that have anticipated the increasing competition between seaport cities and, in response, adopted forward-looking regional strategies and new governance structures involving the relevant private and public stakeholders are likely to succeed in the long term.

Prof. Dr. Dirk Schubert HafenCity University Hamburg Originally published in ISOCARP Review 10, ISOCARP is the International Society of City and Regional Planners

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site visit, North bank Elbe River walkway to Veddel Hamburg MArch Workshop Abroad October 2015

projects Both years of the Master of Architecture programme shared the same fundemental project brief, to understand the qualities and potentials of a given site and then make appropriate, innovative, urban design responses.

The Birkenhead sites (the Mersey waterfront and Queensway Tunnel approaches) and the Hamburg sites of Bille and Veddel were specifically chosen for their similarities. The sites share a proximity to water, which whilst a visual asset spatially isolates them from their respective city cores, additionally all the sites are significantly inhibited by transport infrastructures that traverse them and restrict movement within the local area.

Students were entirely free to determine their own project priorities and thematic approaches, and across the thirty two projects presented here their categorisation is only to aid the reading of the body of work. The fundamental elements of green space, networks, neighbourhoods and anchors appear concurrently in many projects and the selection of category has sought only to identify the primary design driver for each project.

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Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead

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Birkenhead Rerooting Birkenhead

Joseph Kelly, Lean Huang Tan, Georgina Wileman The project responds to Birkenhead’s existing urban context characterised by the imbalance of living and working environments, creating a disconnected city. It aims to reconnect the town’s communities by providing a circular route that links various programs with existing site infrastructure.

Considering the rich local history offering some of Britain’s oldest parks and buildings, as well as the growth of the industrial sector, the strategy focuses on connecting Birkenhead back to the Wirral through its food network. By adapting brownfield land in order to provide allotment space for the residents, the project intends to create a platform for sharing knowledge and skills in relation to food production and create a microfood economy, generating an urban identity for the city as a “producer”. The reinforcement of the economic activity provides further potential for Birkenhead’s residential development, focusing mainly on the water front area and the adaptation of existing road infrastructure in order to provide more pedestrian and cyclist friendly routes.

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Birkenhead Re-establishing Lost Connections Kari Bradbury, Robert Simcox, Syeda Zaman The project seeks to achieve a significant improvement in the physical, economic and social context of Birkenhead, whilst seeking to improve conditions for the whole Wirral population by creating connections between towns. The aim is to establish a clear articulation of public space, connecting different quarters, neighborhoods and communities to each other across the town. A network of existing and new cycle routes reinstates the connection between main parks and major settlements of the Wirral, establishing a stronger network of green spaces and parks. Focusing on Birkenhead, the green axis is formed from the existing Laird grid system, and will provide a green express cycle way from the motorway up to Birkenhead. The ladder running South West to North East is anchored into position by identifying the most dominant landmark of Birkenhead, the Queensway Tunnel ventilation shaft, whereas the ladder running from North West to South East is anchored by the docks. The axis is identified by its links with existing places of interest (Hamilton Square, Town Hall, Magistrates Court building, Birkenhead community college, the Transport Museum and the ventilation shaft), and thereby enhancing the legibility and accessibility of the town’s assets.

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Hamburg The Gartens of Billerhuder Hugh Haran, Andrew Harris

Moritz Schreber started the Schrebergarten movement in the mid 1800’s, with the intention of making people aware of the inherent value of gardening and outdoor activity. The Schrebergartens on the island of Billerhuder, East of Hamburg city centre, were formed in 1921. After the destruction of Hamburg in 1943, a scarcity of food and housing led to the establishment of new allotments on the island.

Today, new inhabitants have to abide by particular rules to avail of an allotment lease - they are not permitted to live on site as permanent residents and are not allowed to ‘winterise’ the dwelling.

This culture of inner-city, low density, hinterland is in high demand amongst the citizens of Hamburg.

Furthermore, due to an increased demand for new inner city residential developments, through the Chamber of Commerce, the city has put forward proposals to turn Billerhuder into a new mixed residential and industrial quarter.

This project offers an alternative. Billerhuder Insel will offer inspiration, and take part in generating new opportunities for the people of Hamburg to collectively enjoy weekend leisure pursuits.

Architectural interventions to the south will reflect the nature of the island; an expansive new infrastructure, a series of paths and gardens, will allow people to wander and enjoy the water’s edge. Arts and crafts workshops will offer a social counterpoint to the introverted Schrebergarten huts. These are key nodes which will take advantage of the industrial resources in place, to change the nature of a single-use industrial landscape; and offer places of interest to the citydwellers where they can escape their nine to five and explore and adopt new pastimes.

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Birkenhead The New Garden Town

Gethin Hughes, Rhiannon Morgan, Omar Shariff

The New Town of Birkenhead aims to inject life back into the existing town, whilst accommodating the predicted future population growth of Liverpool City Region.

Taking advantage of the town’s close proximity to the city of Liverpool, it provides a good opportunity for expansion. This ‘new town’ would aim to improve the quality of life of the current residents, re-imagining Birkenhead as a pleasurable and vibrant place to live, with the significant new asset of an animated waterfront and an enhanced infrastructure of green parks.

The project explores Garden City principles and would reintroduce people into the town, aiming to 28

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increase Birkenhead’s population from 83,000 to 200,000 people. It would be a healthy place to live, with the wellbeing of its inhabitants, at the core of the project aspirations. Better utilisation of the existing public transport links to Liverpool, along with the introduction of pedestrian, vehicular and cycle routes throughout the town would mean that all necessary amenities will be within a 10 minute walking distance from the town centre. A new urban park to the south would welcome visitors from Birkenhead Central Station and a new urban square to the north would link to Hamilton Square station, the ferry terminal and the bus station.

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Birkenhead P.O.P. | Pockets of Potential

Sade Akinsanya, Alexandra Douka, Feridson Han Wei Hong

The project responds to Birkenhead as a context that allows an inclusive environment, breaking the boundaries of the industrial zoning of the area and encouraging interaction, rest and play. Identifying an “urban park of potentials”, it proposes three different sectors: education, leisure and retail. An aim is to boost the already existing maritime college by providing facilities for students and visitors (bookshops, workshop, and a viewing tower). The design responds to the social makeup of the town suggesting a variety of relevant activities (a performance stage, coffee houses, restaurants, retail shops, markets, allotments, a green house, and sport facilities).

The space between the ferry terminal and the Priory became the main area of the project’s focus, taking into consideration the Peel Group’s regeneration plans for Wirral Waters.

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Birkenhead Residential Connection

Panagiotis Georgiades, Liam Marsden, Oliver Jones The project develops a residential alternative to Liverpool that occupies the Birkenhead waterfront, transforming an under-used area into an energetic location. The arrangement establishes visual connections with the historic townscape of Birkenhead as well as Liverpool’s waterfront. It aims to promote a walkable city by creating a green park behind the waterfront and achieving strong connections with the public transport network. The park becomes the spine of the project, whilst the residential developments contribute to a higher density of the urban fabric. Between the two residential zones, the commercial/cultural hub provides the office spaces and cafes/restaurants with a link to the historic ferry terminal that itself becomes a focal point of the design.

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Birkenhead Extending the Grid

Samah Anjum, Zhor Boukerrou, Jack Cooper The concept for the project is to extend the existing grid layout around Hamilton Square towards the waterfront. The idea is to create a dense urban environment in line with successful inner city areas such as Manchester’s Northern Quarter or Liverpool’s Bold Street. The project highlights the creation of usable green spaces as nodes of a local food production network and attractions for visitors (Winter garden, Hamilton Square, Town Hall indoor market). In order to increase the potential of this strategy, car parks are transformed into market gardens.

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Hamburg Water Providing Ground

Jennifer Diez-Jones, Adam Dwyer, Harry Foster

URBAN STRATEGY URBAN STRATEGY

FLOOD AREA INFRASTRUCTURE WALLS

Each year the entire residential district of the Veddel study area floods, causing detrimental impacts on the residents there. The majority of the existing ground floor spaces are derelict and unused, providing a daily reminder of the past flood exposure. Since the tragic 1962 flood, defensive mechanisms were implemented to avoid flood damage, involving raising the level of the dykes and creating overflow zones in which the Elbe River has more diversion space in times of flooding.

Considering the inefficiency of this model, the project introduces a strategy to minimise the volumes of directed water that returns into the canal infrastructures and instead lets rainwater seep through on the site, through the use of marshland. The strategy for flooding allows for the contingency of water to breach the area, but is managed with a degree of resilience; as opposed to prevention.

The design strategy aims to reduce the impact that flooding has on the area. It is also intended to address the social division and residential deprivation in Veddel. The ambition is to connect toether the 60 different communities that reside in the area. The project is comprised of; the land zone with the theatre garden, the knowledge quarter, the language and culture centre, social hub and the market of 60 cultures; the amphibious zone with social housing and the marsh & reed garden; and finally the water zone with the shipping channel, the floating village and the protective levee to control water flow.

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Hamburg Water Providing Ground

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Hamburg Plexus City/the Cultural Platform

Lauren O’Donnell , Harrison Smith, Syed Danial Anwar Wan Muhammad “Plexus” defines the network of “green space” from land to water, connecting the people of Hamburg back to the river Elbe. The project introduces a “green ribbon” stretching from Ballinstadt in the south to Hamburg’s museum mile in the city centre, connecting many segregated areas north and south of the river.

It takes influence from New York’s High Line focusing upon recreation along the Elbe’s rich waterfront, ideas that coincide with Hamburg’s wider city master plan. The aim is to integrate a pedestrian link that makes use of the waterfront connecting nodes, to form a medium between ecological and urban realms.

The Olympic site and HafenCity are in close proximity and the project acts as a push and pull factor, comprising three sectors (South Bank, Culture Hub and Performance Platform) connected through a bridge, stretched with greenery and defined pedestrian and cycling routes with viewing areas and floating islands for boats to dock. The Performance Platform is a large floating plaza promoting the public realm for recreational use. It allows active flow in and around the bars, clubs, restaurants and the open-air theatre. The Culture Hub, perceived as an extension to the public realm, provides an information centre for tourists and a space for local community projects and chaired meetings. South Bank is an area of potential for investment and social activity with retail, food outlets, museums and large river frontages as points of interest with water sport activities such as canoeing, kayaking, rowing and wind surfing along the enclosed water edge. The promenade enables and rewards “leaping over the Elbe” and aims to promote the formation of a multi cultural district. Mixed use, affordable, units aim to promote growth, and allow the local community to inhabit their own city.

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Hamburg Ensuring Future Prosperity Tom Barlow, Daniel Haigh, Jacob Robertson The project intends to create an area in Hamburg that through excellence in training, innovation, research and development, will increase the number of skilled workers, and enhance the skill levels of the current and future working population. The masterplan adheres to an ethos of cross fertilisation and exchange of ideas though a chain of linked spaces surrounded by buildings housing places of research innovation and training. The design establishes a programme of specific uses within different buildings and sections of the site.

Project objectives include; provision of the best facilities in Germany for the highest levels of research, innovation and training in the automotive, port & harbour and aeronautical industries; to inspire people of all skill levels to become involved by becoming trainers, researchers, workers, innovators or students; to provide high quality residential, leisure and retail facilities that will enrich the living and working experience of visitors, trainees, researchers and other participants.

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Birkenhead [Inter] Cultivation Community Nur Amiera, Amir Izzat, Kevin Hiew

North Birkenhead lacks open places to break out into, as the urban fabric is condensed with industrial and private buildings. The proposal is to introduce anchor points spread across the town in order to inject new life into Birkenhead with spaces where economic exchange as well as social encounter occur.

At each of these three anchor points a programme of uses related to developing a local food economy has been proposed. These uses include reseach, storage, market exchange and education facilities. The anchors are linked by the existing gridded street pattern and by the proposal to activate the abandoned railway as a farming link and new public pathway.

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Birkenhead The Walkable Town

Katja Johnston, Nick Kelly, Annie Zahoor The project aims to transform Birkenhead into a car-free town. Inspired by successful European examples which are slowly converting urban centres into walkable areas, it investigates the potential of revitalising the town by creating an expanded mobility network in the form of an express tram linking directly to the heart of Liverpool city centre. The Queensway Tunnel becomes a fast and reliable mode of dedicated public transport without cars or pollution.

Accommodating bicycles, the tram compliments the development of a walkable, car free, town centre and supports cycle tourism across the whole of the Wirral.

Inspired by Edinburgh New Town, the project suggests typologies for the mews areas between the facades of each block, providing a core of small affordable units that will encourage startup businesses. New public squares will support the cultural diversity of a range of grassroots activity.

Within this defined zone of walkable town there will be courtyards of various sizes containing children’s playgrounds and places for private contemplation.

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Birkenhead Reconnecting the City

Carl Elliott, Konstantina Voroklinioti, Martin Williams The project is about the potential of Birkenhead to achieve a high quality living environment, encouraging people to stay in the town and attracting visitors from Liverpool. Aiming to enhance the local economy, provide job opportunities and suggest leisure activities, the project proposes a retail area inspired by the Liverpool One development. It aims to unite Birkenhead and Liverpool by improving connectivity, achieved by changing the Queensway Tunnel into an eco-friendly transportation link between the two places, which will allow access only to smart buses, electric cars and bicycles. The building programme of the area is primarily to expand the existing retail infrastructure with shops, restaurants and cafes, including green spaces, offices and two car parks which will release open land in order to provide a greatly improved public realm.

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Hamburg Bridging the Gap

Rikesh Dahyabhai, David Moynihan, Michael Quayle The project tackles the permeability of the site as the existing infrastructure network together with the bodies of water currently form a restrictive collar, segregating the site from the surrounding areas. The project suggests a pedestrian link over the railway connecting through high rise towers to bridge the gap between Veddel and HafenCity, as well as the Olympic waterfront park.

Utilising the existing dormant dock as a focal point and amenity location, the project proposes a social hub equipped with cafes, restaurants, bars and outdoor terraces.

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Hamburg Discovering Rothensburg

Emily Green, Rebecca Nutbrown, Scott Stamper The poem Dammtor, by James Sheard, explores the transformation of the old city gate into a modern city transport hub for Hamburg. The poem is about a journey from Dammtor Station, focusing on the reality and truth of some undiscovered places and people in Hamburg.

At the inception of the project the poem was taken as inspiration and a journey was made mapping the rhythm of the city on a direct route from Dammtor to Rothenburgsort, noting the public anchors along the way.

The project dismisses the interjection of largescale redevelopment as a process appropriate to regenerate this area of Hamburg. Instead there is a need for collective memory in spaces and buildings, creating connections between people and places that can be enjoyed by wider society.

The project seeks to reveal the undiscovered anchors and hidden gems in the area to express the characteristics of the place. This would be achieved through a series of interventions, consisting of infill development at a range of scales across the study area.

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Hamburg Veddel Gateway

Aliya Farjo, James Mullen, David Murphy The ‘Veddel Gateway’ is a response to the current migrant crisis in Europe. The ambition of this project was to create a place that accommodates refugees from the moment they first enter Hamburg, providing emergency measures, and then helps them settle and integrate into existing communities. This requires the creation of suitable residential capacity in the city, with Veddel being one approriate location.

With adjustments to the street pattern and improved accessibility Veddel can accommodate additional development comfortably, development which sensitively integrates into the established local neighbourhood.

The proposal includes new residential blocks, a ferry terminal, retail spaces and cultural buildings.

These are all connected by a new strengthened pedestrian route that guides people from the north of the site to the south.

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neighbourhoods

Altona neighbourhood, Hamburg

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Birkenhead Birkenhead Arts Collective Matt Kerrod, Andrew Jarman

By 2020 this country will have been subjected to a decade of economic ‘austerity’ by government.

It is envisioned that during this period Birkenhead will remain on its current trajectory and continue to decline socially, economically and physically.

Meanwhile across the River Mersey, Liverpool will remain stable and perhaps grow such that property values will increase. This will result in some demographic groups, such as artists and younger graduates, being priced out the area and being forced to look beyond Liverpool city centre for accommodation and workspace. It is at this moment that the Birkenhead Arts Collective will be formed.

The project proposes that through collaborative means the Arts Collective would seeks to regenerate Birkenhead using a programme of arts and small scale urban interventions which involve the local community at all levels. Utilising the existing iconic and period architecture, the Collective would seek to reinvigorate the town, with initial careful assessment and repurposing of some of the high quality vacant building stock.

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Strategy 2 - The Birkenhead Pound

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Hamburg Questionable Hamburg

Adam Brindley, John Finlayson, Chris Wells

The project proposition is that as a result of capitalism, cities are becoming increasingly globalised with an associated image of being boring, repetitive and dull. Architects and developers at the critical urban stage have failed to build the city of today or tomorrow due to the rules generated by data, data that is destined to become obsolete. As a result, testing and experimentation with urbanism has stagnated, a crucial necessity in a world that is evolving faster than ever before. The project seeks to explore a new type of urbanism, an urbanism based not on data, but on the physical experience of what a city is.

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The project seeks to capture this true essence of a city through its exploration using the protaganists senses, emotions, feelings and memories, with the intention to generate a new way to ‘collage’ the areas explored. The testing ground for this new urban methodology is Hamburg, and in short, the objective is to use Hamburg as found to recreate Hamburg within Hamburg. By creating narratives and themes, the project can then craft ingredients of context that can then be abstracted to create a new context for the city. In doing so, the project creates new data and can experiment with new possibilities for the site in Hamburg in an original, playful way.

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Hamburg Social Housing

Domnica Chisca, Roshan Hariram, Chloe Purcell

The project is thought of as part of Hamburg’s action plan to create more housing outside of the city centre. Considering the refugee crisis, the project is developed primarily as a means to provide shelter and also educational facilities to assist refugees. Housing is developed as a social hub providing shared spaces that allow interaction and provide opportunities for economic growth. In response to the low density of the Rothensburgort area, the project applies the successful spatial organisation of Altona borough, located in the western part of Hamburg.

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by smaller buildings, that can be used by the residents as space for workshops, playgrounds, sports facilities or gardens, depending on their personal needs of the moment. The meandering streets guide pedestrians from node to node, where these roads widen and intersect, spaces are created for shops to spill out and people to linger. The majority of the buildings are mixed use, having shops and cafes at ground level and residential and office space above.

OfďŹ ce and Commercial

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Hamburg The Volk Strasse

Ryan Blair, Samantha Boner, Eleri Plews Based on Hamburg’s ambition to become “carfree”, the project proposes a pedestrian route beginning at Saint Erich’s Church and ending at the summer garden allotments of Billehuder Insel. Based on the theories of Kevin Lynch for identifying sequences of events and activities, the route is composed of a series of nodes allowing the establishment of visual connections with landmarks around the site. The sequences of this promenade include the Rothenburgsort Switch Station, mixed use recreational buildings (retail and leisure) and a residential complex.

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Hamburg Filling the Gap

Michael Bates-Tracey, Jonathon Sharma, Ross Whittle Located between the new IBA development and the city centre, the project aims to develop an area of post industrialised land in Veddel. Contributing towards Hamburg’s need for more residential areas in the city and based on a community approach, it encourages a heterogeneous demographic composition and provides housing for the refugees entering Germany. Intended to fill a gap of residential provision in the city, it is concieved in the spatial and economic context of HafenCity, the proposed Olympic Village and an existing 1920s residential development in Veddel. The project proposes a series of vistas and routes, utilising the exisiting street patterns and able to accommodate the current and future uses of the site. At the riverside new development is the set back in order to better define the “edge� with the river and to create space for recreational activities.

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Hamburg The Expansion of Veddel

Carrie Cavanagh, Christopher Shaw, Michael Smith Having studied Hamburg’s development strategy (HafenCity, Olympic village), the project is intensifying the city in accordance with these plans. Considering the need for more housing, the lack of amenities and the lack of variation in the public realm, it proposes to grow the existing community blending seamlessly into the city fabric. In order to create a gravitational point, the project contains a civic hub. This “knowledge quarter” provides new schools offering education from nursery level right through to pre-university stage. Transport links are improved by the introduction of water taxis to the city which would dock at Veddel on the edge of the park, as well as the new S-bahn stop proposed to serve the area.

These two components along with the potential of a park and ride scheme would make Veddel a new transportation hub of comparable size to Landsbrucken on the other side of the river.

Based on Hamburg’s ambition to become “carfree”, the project emphasises the pedestrian experience. The example set by the Olympic scheme, a ribbon of green that clings to the water’s edge is continued through the site and provides a promenade around the periphery and views across the Elbe to central Hamburg. The existing body of water in the middle of Veddel is opened up to provide the opportunity for the community to engage with the water.

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Hamburg The Continuum: Age Fusion Plateau Atiya Iman, Jayz Wei Ren Lee, Wei Khang Yeo The primary intention of the project, to create a good place for the elderly to live, was the result of extensive research. With the significant growth in aging population in Germany, the suitable accommodation of this demographic within urban areas is a topic requiring urgent consideration.

This project sees the positive opportunities for social interaction, leisure activities and occupation for all, but particularly senior members of society. The project proposes a neighbourhood especially weighted towards accessibility, enjoyable open space and convenient services including specialist healthcare.

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Hamburg Urban Expansion Scheme Alex Brooke, Lee Newell, Liam Thomas

As Hamburg expands, its ability to cope with a rapidly increasing population is diminishing.

Housing has therefore become a critical issue running through the city. Hamburg residents spend one third of their income on accommodation, and there is a deficit of 65,000 dwellings citywide. Whilst the city centre is rapidly gentrifying with large-scale investment such as Hafencity, the east of the city, and in particular Bille, has been left as a peripheral zone of under-utilised commercial and industrial lots.

The project proposes that Bille should become a site of new residential and cultural development, based around the Billhorner Deich road that connects the established community in Rothenburgsort, via Rothenburgsort S-Bahnhof, to the Bille basin. A new community will be built around this new hub, growing into a new ‘City District’, rejuvenating its culture and identity.

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Hamburg Re-Activate Veddel

Bayu Aditya, Thomas Choong, Michael Eze

The proposal is for a scheme that encompasses a thriving mix of development in Veddel that will bringing the many seperate communities in the area together. With a focus on pedestrian connectivity throughout the site the project creates a series of nodal points linking between the River Elbe and the lake south of the study area. At the lake a new set of facilities around, and on, the water will create a significant new heart for the wider district, being the most significant cutural and social hub on the south side of the Elbe.

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anchors

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg sitting at the ‘prow’ of the Hafen City development area

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Birkenhead Refloating Birkenhead

Rhydian Eldridge, Brandon McKeown, Craig Neal, Jonathon Tinsley

The project began with the raw reaction to context at its very core - by building on the already well-established industrial framework of Cammell Lairds, the project attempted to create a template for future growth through the manipulation of an existing typology – the industrial town. This particular typology came to fruition in the early part of the 20th Century with realisations such as Bournville, Saltaire and more locally Port Sunlight.

This framework is adapted to suit a modern context but the more defining characteristics remained true to their original vision. All residents are employees of the Cammell Laird and LJMU Lairdside co-operative and each resident owns 70

Liverpool John Moores University

shares in their community as a whole. Our ambition was to knit into the existing urban fabric by plugging into the physical context to the West of the site and re-animating the edge of the River Mersey to the East, thereby serving the existing residents of Birkenhead and also those of the proposed intervention.

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Hamburg Bille Music Quay

Khang How Chun, Anna Eager, Pinky Tan The project suggests an urban programme that brings liveliness and vitality to the site by providing a mixed-use residential development together with music events and facilities. The idea of a musical district was inspired by the condition of Bille as a busy industrial area in the day and a deserted area in the night. Aiming to fully explore the site’s potential, the project focuses on the reuse of on-site structures and the conversion of some of the warehouses to dual usage buildings (industrial sites during the day and music venues during the night).

A pedestrian promenade rising around the edges of the Bille Lake area is intended to attract passerbys to walk around the path leading to the site, and experince city living as an event.

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Hamburg Veddel - Social Equity

Rebecca Blakley, Benjamin Naylor, Shu Qin Ng The project responds to Hamburg’s housing policy (1/3 free market, 1/3 social, 1/3 buy to let) by proposing a mix of residential towers and back to back houses. It provides links to the public transport network, connecting the site with the proposed Olympic Village and HafenCity. The public spaces (including green spaces, play parks, skate parks, and a mini outdoor stage) and the community/commercial/cultural spaces are carefully located at the ground floor of the residential blocks to allow maximum interaction between buildings and streets.

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Birkenhead 7 Arts

Kathlyn Atienza, Mai Vi Giang, Michalis Malekkidis The premise of the project is the establishment of a significant cultural destination to draw social and economic activity back to Birkenhead’s waterfront. The project explores the potential of Birkenhead to promote a Seven Arts Campus in order to draw together the cultural and creative areas and communities of North West England and create a fruitful environment for young artistic entrepreneurs and start-up companies.

The campus will collaborate with Wirral Waters and local universities aiming to make Birkenhead a significant ‘Cultural and Creative Hub’ of the North West.

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Birkenhead Waterfront

Rhys Gethin, Maria Pitsillou

This masterplan proposes Birkenhead Waterfront as a regionally important cultural hub, supposing a large scale capital development project which would creat a critical mass of significant new buildings and public realm such that the waterfront becomes an attractor of new people and further investment.

In this ambition Birkenhead would emulate the Liverpool waterfront and it is proposed that it would secure a major cultural anchor such as taking the Tate Gallery away from Liverpool, or securing a similar, Guggenheim, type organisation. This would allow the development of a significant cultural building on the waterfront,

with a new ferry terminal integrated into it.

This anchor would support other cultural facilities, a public promenade and leisure uses which would combine to create an animated and popular waterfront.

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Birkenhead Edu|village

Shao Qian Chan, Jaabir Hussein, Amirah Tengku Johari The project responds to Birkenhead’s ship building history and the existing educational infrastructure, with the town being home to the Maritime Engineering College North West. The proposed development comprises an educational campus- “Learn”, student accommodation and commercial property -“Live”, and place for recreation - “Leisure”.

Inspired by the Cammel Laird £200m contract to build advanced scientific research ships housing laboratories and deploying remote submarines, the project idea is to create a maritime engineering university making use of the existing dry dock and specialist technical expertise.

The educational complex also includes mixed used buildings and shared community space with restaurants and green spaces along the waterfront promenade. The complex provides recreational activities (maritime museum, leisure centre and sport facilities), attracting new visitors to the waterfront. In urban terms the project links the Georgian district with new active streets directly to the waterfront, creating a new experience of the town as a less fragmented, singular, whole.

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Birkenhead Urban Food Re-public

Awall Fiqri, Zackry Johanni, Khusri Musa The proposition is to create a critical mass of new development underpinned by a major urban food programme, consisting of growing, processing and sale along with related food education. There is a wealth of farming and food production already operating in close proximity to Birkenhead, justifying the creation of this cluster.

Additional uses in the proposed plan include significant residential and hotel developments.

In urban design terms the project seeks to make the vital connection between the historic Georgian townscape and the Mersey Waterfront, thus bring Birkenhead’s two best physical assets together. To achieve this the project is focused on the waterfront directly north of the Cammell Laird facility, and directly east of the Town Hall on Hamilton Square.

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Beetham Tower West One

Old Hall Street SAS Radisson Hotel & Apartments Adagio Hotel Lewis’s

Part 1 and Part 2 Graduates please send your up to1date CV and portfolio please for consideration Part and Part 2 Graduates send your up to for a CV position. date and portfolio for consideration for a position.

Parsonage Chambers - 3 The Parsonage - Manchester M3 2HW T +44 (0)161 828 7900 E manchester@ahr-global.com ahr-global.com

Hilton Hotel Liverpool One

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w w w. c a l d e r p e e l . c o m cpp@calderpeel.com CHE SHIRE | S URREY

Welsh National Sailing Academy & Events Centre, Pwllheli

Ellis Williams is an experienced international architectural practice specialising in strategic and creative solutions in the Regeneration, Masterplanning, Education, Commercial, Leisure and Arts sectors. Employing over 60 staff with offices in Warrington, London, Liverpool and Berlin we have developed a reputation for design excellence and attention to detail.

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Top 100 practice

Falconer Chester Hall is an award winning architectural and interiors practice with an international reputation.

Our committed team is based in Liverpool and London, servicing schemes across the UK, and we have recently opened our first overseas office in Kuala Lumpur.

We are looking for experienced architects and talented assistants to work on some exciting projects. If that sounds like you then get in touch.

CV and examples of work to f.winter@fcharchitects.com

Liverpool T. +44 (0)151 243 5800 Liverpool

London

Kuala Lumpur

London T. +44 (0)203 137 7393

Kuala Lumpur T. +(0)60 3 2858 6401

www.fcharchitects.com

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ARCHITECTURE | URBAN PLANNING | INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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INNOVATION

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LONDON

ARCHITECTURE

PLACEMAKING

QU E E N ELISAB E TH H ALL, ANTWERP

TWO ST PET ER ’S S QU AR E, MANC HES T ER

B AT T ER S EA POW ER STAT I O N, LO N D O N

SimpsonHaugh and Partners is an award winning, design led architectural practice with offices in Manchester and London We are currently recruiting for Part I and Part II graduates to join our studios and help to deliver a series of exciting projects, which include major masterplanning proposals, cultural buildings, residential and commercial developments, hotels and infrastructure projects.

Candidates should be passionate about design with good communication, CAD (ideally MicroStation) and hand drawing skills.

Please send a cover letter, CV, and a concise sample of your most relevant work by email to careers@simpsonhaugh.com

ON E SPIN NING F I ELDS, MANCHES TER

DOLLA R B AY, LONDON

MANCHESTER Riverside, 4 Commercial Street Manchester M15 4RQ T +44 (0)161 835 2345 F +44 (0)161 839 4808 www.simpsonhaugh.com

LONDON 5-8 Roberts Place London EC1R 0BB T +44 (0)20 7549 4000 F +44 (0)20 7490 5331 mail@simpsonhaugh.com

urbandesignljmu.com architecture-ljmu.tumblr.com studio design tutors Phil Lo Aliki-Myrto Perysinaki Jamie Scott Dominic Wilkinson Ian Wroot exhibition by LJMU MArch Programme Design - Jamie Scott, Andrew Jarman, Matt Kerrod, Domnica Chisca Catalogue - Jamie Scott, Aliki-Myrto Perysinaki, Anthony Malone, Domnica Chisca Sponsorship - Andrew Jarman Installation - Matt Kerrod, Martin Gee Website - Carlos Santos Barea Photography - Carlos Santos Barea Modelmaking - Lol Baker Event Co-ordination - Rachel Carr January 2016 v2

site visit, north bank Elbe River walkway to Veddel, in front of Hafen City, Hamburg MArch Workshop Abroad October 2015

This catalogue celebrates the work of our 2015 Master of Architecture Urban Design studio. This year we have studied two comparable urban places, one local, one European.

With the Liverpool City Region Devolution Agreement recently completed we have undertaken a study of Hamburg, a true city-state. There we looked specifically at edge-of-centre urban conditions and locally we have found similar issues in Birkenhead, as we considered that town’s relationship to Liverpool, the Wirral and the City Region.

We hope the projects and essays presented here encourage discussion about the future of our region.

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Architecture Programmes, Liverpool School of Art & Design, John Lennon Art and Design Building, Duckinfield Street, Liverpool, L3 5RD