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For ten consecutive years, Vienna ranks first in the Mercer survey on cities with the best quality of life in the world. In this edition to the global ranking, eight Western European cities join the top ten, even when "trade tensions and populist undercurrents continue to dominate the global economic climate", as Mercer points out in its report.
Caruso St John has won an international competition for a new headquarters for German publishing giant Gruner + Jahr in Hamburg. The winning scheme, chosen over RIBA Gold Medal winners O’Donnell + Tuomey, and Berlin-based ROBERTNUEN Architekten, features “striking green-enameled ceramic struts and three partially covered interior courtyards.”
The 60,000-square-meter scheme will be located in the Lohsepark area of the city, where it will form part of the HafenCity ensemble of office, commercial, and residential buildings.
Acting both as a “visionary landmark and an urban catalyst,” C.F. Møller Architects’ proposal for a new train station development in Altona, Hamburg, emphasizes the significance of green space within the city’s urban fabric. The project will have several uses, ranging from cafes, restaurants, and shops to offices and fitness centers. Its unique undulating roof landscape “embodies a collective and progressive vision of reinforcing Hamburg’s green credentials.”
ADEPT and KARRES + BRANDS have won the international competition to design Oberbillwerder, a new masterplan district in the city of Hamburg. Offering around a million square meters of housing, business, shopping, public buildings, and recreational activities, the Oberbillwerder plan is the largest single development plan in Germany since Hafencity, which contains around 1.7 million square meters of new space (including the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie) and is also currently being completed in Hamburg.
David Chipperfield Architects has won a competition to design the Elbtower, a 230-meter tall building in Hamburg that will be the city's tallest. Located on the eastern edge of the Hafencity, the sculptural building has a strong presence on the riverfront, forming a counterpoint to Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie to the West. The building hosts office space in the tower, over a podium containing a bar, hotel, restaurant, retail and exhibition areas.
Germany’s first wooden high-rise, the “Wildspitze,” is being designed by Störmer Murphy and Partners. At 18 stories and 64 meters high, this residential tower will be one of Europe’s largest urban development projects.
Located in Elbbrücken, a peninsula neighborhood within Hamburg's HafenCity, Wildspitze will add 189 residential units on its riverside site. Each apartment will feature a loggia behind a double glass facade.
Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos has revealed the design of Montblanc Haus, a new museum, visitor center and event space in Hamburg, Germany dedicated to the "art of writing" and the finely-detailed craftsmanship of Montblanc products. The
Spanish firm was selected as the winner of an international competition ahead of top teams including Snohetta (Norway), John Pawson (UK), wHY (USA) and Noé Duchaufour (France).
At the announcement, Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz and Montblanc CEO Nicolas Baretzki unveiled the design of the 39,395-square-foot (3,660-square-meter) project for the first time, presenting it as a new architectural icon for the city. Estimated to cost 20 million euros, the museum will tell the story of Montblanc through the company's iconic writing utensils and products.
A team of local residents and architects in Hamburg’s neighborhood of St. Pauli have been granted planning permission for a proposal to repurpose a war bunker dating back from the 1940s. Coined Hilldegarden, the proposal seeks to create a “green mountain” garden atop the disused roof of the bunker along with a range of mixed-use projects that increase its height by several stories. “We are rebuilding what we inherit.” The project’s initiative states, “Adding something to history while dealing with it and thereby reshaping history itself.”
From the publishers. The March 2017 issue of a+u is a special issue dedicated to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg by Herzog & de Meuron. We invited the architects as guest editors to collaborate with us in documenting the entire process from the very beginning, in 2001, up to the opening concert in January 2017.
This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Will Elbphilharmonie Be Hamburg’s Guggenheim?"
So much has already been written about Hamburg’s undeniably excellent Elbphilharmonie, which formally opened in January but has been publicly accessible, in part, since November. The chatter has mostly revolved around the same two talking points—the building’s on-the-tip-of-your-tongue shape and its fantastic price tag. In addressing the former, critics have called attention to the hall’s resemblance to an iceberg, an outcrop, a ship, circus tents, or the Sydney Opera House. And as for the costs, totaling $900 million, they point out how the project hemorrhaged cash, even if they have inadvertently exaggerated the figures. Having momentarily lost control of the narrative, the city felt compelled to set the record straight in time for the inaugural performance: The building cost just three—not ten!—times the initial budget.
In any city across the world, there are countless examples of unsung architecture – well-designed if inoffensive buildings that strive to please by not standing out from the crowd. For German photographer Paul Eis, these buildings provide the perfect canvas for his work. Displayed on his Instagram account, the_architecture_photographer, Eis captures these buildings in their best light, and then digitally adds in bright colors, elevating these structures from mundane to magnificent.
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Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu has visited Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Germany – a 2017 winner of the ArchDaily Building of the Year award. The striking silhouette of this cultural centre and concert hall, which is identical in ground plan to the brick block of the older building upon which it sits, is often photographed as an isolated object. In this photo-essay, the context of the port around the project is often foregrounded – and unusual views offer new perspectives onto its iconic design.
In the latest video from architecture vlogging favorites #donotsettle, the infectiously energetic duo of Wahyu Pratomo and Kris Provoost team up to take us inside Herzog & de Meuron's newly-completed Elphilharmonie in Hamburg. Filmed during the music venue's "family day," part of its three-week-long opening festival, #donotsettle gives us an engaging look into the building's many spaces—cleverly accompanied by an annotated cross-section of the building which allows us to track their progress through the project's labyrinthine interior.
In preparation for their grand opening on January 11/12, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg has released an interactive drone video that lets you experience the Herzog & de Meuron-designed building at two different speeds: adagio and presto (slow or fast). Using the spacebar to switch between speeds, the footage takes you on a tour up the curving escalator, on to the elevated terrace, around the building and finally into the main concert hall, where the drones meet back up in a dramatic finish.
Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany has opened after 16 years of planning and construction, which was held back by financial and legal issues. The grand opening of the concert hall, taking place on January 11 and 12, 2017, features inaugural concerts and a light display on the façade of the building.
As Hamburg’s newest cultural destination, the building was inaugurated by German Federal President Joachim Gauck, Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz, architect Jacques Herzog from Herzog & de Meuron, and General and Artistic Director Christoph Lieben-Seutter.
More than 4,500 guests from Germany and abroad will take part in the opening concerts in the Grand Hall and Recital Hall today and tomorrow, including Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, various high-ranking political and cultural leaders from around the world, and 1,000 visitors who won tickets to the event, out of 220,000 entrants from 73 countries.
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