Inspiration Case 8: Diverse Harbour District

INSPIRATION CASE 8: DIVERSE HARBOUR DISTRICT General Information Developing harbour districts of cities like Hamburg’s HafenCity, which were often used as industrial or logistical spaces over the past decades, can bring a huge benefit to the local community by bringing the city to the water and leading to diverse and green living, working and leisure spaces. Urban development projects based on a long term vision of diversity, density, userparticipation and sustainability and applying highly efficient public transport, a mix use of the built environment, socially inclusive housing show impressively how even bigger urban planning processes can be designed in a collaborative way.

The Dallmankai. Photo by Daniel Barthmann, courtesy of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH

Inspiration & Parametres for change a) diversity in the built environment with a long-term vision

By involving business as well as residential space, HafenCity’s initiators created a diverse built environment, including natural components, creating public spaces and equipping the place with a 25-year strategy. Planning proposals are being judged by sustainability standards like energy performance, benefit to public amenity, health, design, comfort, mix of use and building’s efficiency over time.

b) innovative development & ownership models

The example shows that even huge planning processes like Hamburg HafenCity can be developed in a highly participative and inclusive way, aiming not only on desirable ecological solutions but also on social and economic sustainability. In this example, developers do not only have to compete with cost efficiency in their proposals, but also with respect to their quality and design. Hafencity illustration. Photo by Fotofrizz, illustration Michael Korol, source: HafenCity Hamburg GmbH

INSPIRATION CASE 8: DIVERSE HARBOUR DISTRICT Our inspiring example: Hafen City, Hamburg, Germany. ‘Bringing the city to the water’ was the overall theme when Hamburg’s former Mayor Henning Voscherau presented the re-development plan in 1991. In ‘Hamburg HafenCity’ an area of 157 hectares has been and will be developed as a high-class city district applying a mixed use of living, working, culture and leisure.

The Marco Polo Terraces. Photo by ELBE&FLUT, source: HafenCity Hamburg GmbH.

Open space Magdeburg harbour. Photo by Michael Korol, source: HafenCity Hamburg GmbH.

How was HafenCity developed? Before the 1990’s, river Elbe’s north bank, in contrast to the south bank, was relatively underused as it was part of the city’s port. At this time, the City of Hamburg developed its initial vision to transform the harbour area into an extension of the inner city, one that should be metropolitan, but also neighbourly, socially including and design driven. Achieving a mix of building uses, types, aesthetics, and ecological diversity was on top of developers’ agenda as they encouraged a mixed group of investors, builders, designers and residents to collaborate in the district’s re-build. Housing co-ops, sustainable public transport, minimum-impact energy supply, green open spaces and communal facilities are all parts of the new area.

What does this mean for Hamburg’s community? Beside the importance of sustainability and a mix of use in HafenCity’s built environment, the re-development brought a new type of developer to fore: the so called ‘joint building venture’. Joint building ventures are described as co-operatives of future residents who purchase the land, co-design and co-construct their own buildings whilst HafenCity GmbH, the coordinating agency behind the development project, facilitates the whole process. The result of this process can be seen in high diversity of buildings, their design, quality and use. Additionally, often those ventures are able to realise prices well below market rates.

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