Hafen-schaft, el nuevo paisaje fluvial de Hamburgo: propuesta por una nueva relación entre puerto y ciudad

Abstract

Talking about the city of Hamburg means talking about its entire port. Not only because its genesis is committed to its original commercial essence, but this fundamental characteristic has been maintained and sought over time. It is a port located in the estuary of the river Elbe, and almost 100 km separate it from its mouth. For centuries, the port and its forms have been the protagonists of continuous transformations that have characterised and defined the image of the city, accomplice and spectator of this change. The different forms that the port has assumed over time have modelled both the urban scenarios of this complex urban reality and its tangible waterfront, whose unity lies in this constant and dynamic state of metamorphosis. The research that has taken place in Hamburg's territory had the specific objective of providing instruments to read this landscape in continuous evolution. This landscape is constituted both by the union between the city and the port, and by the Elbe, a river that contrasts them firmly. Thanks to this research we have reflected on the key role that the port has always played in weaving the identity of Hamburg, discovering the multiple relationships that can be formed on the banks of the river, which are actually two opposite and complementary waterfronts.

The aim is to rethink the relationship between port and city, with the proposal of a type of interaction that does not see one reality prevailing over the other. We have come to the definition of a design solution in the architectural and landscape field, which is focused on urban regeneration in the port context, and consequently on an inevitable new way of relating to the water. Those elements that contribute to the definition of the waterfront have been sought in order to achieve a conformation of the urban space that can be resolved as a new point of connection between the port and the city.