Hamburg, Germany To Showcase Major Urban Development Projects in
Boston
“Building the City Anew – Imagining Tomorrow’s Metropolis”
Hamburg / Germany, October 10th - From
October 15 to 28, 2013, Boston will welcome a shared exhibition by the two
major symbols of Hamburg’s ambitious urban design and re-development: The
HafenCity Hamburg, Europe’s largest urban development project, is expanding the
city center of Hamburg by forty percent with iconic mixed-use design on former
brown fields on the Elbe River. The IBA (International Building Exhibition)
builds on a 100 year-old German tradition of experimental design and urban
planning with a seven-year project that is transforming an inner city island
marked by waste dumps, industrial zones and public housing into vibrant and
sustainable community living.
The joint exhibition, “Building the City Anew” will be presented
at the Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, in Boston from October 15
through 28, 2013. Hamburg’s Minister for the Economy, Mr. Frank Horch,
will preside over an official Hamburg-Boston reception on Tuesday, October 22.
Boston and Hamburg face a number of common development and
sustainability challenges: large scale urban development, waterfront
development, sea level rise, and harbor islands preservation. In fact, Boston
architectural firm Kennedy&Violich Architecture designed one of the
innovative buildings on display at the IBA. Their design, The Soft House,
was the competition winner for most adaptable live/work row housing and opened
in March 2013. It offers a new model for carbon neutral construction and
an ecologically responsive lifestyle that can be personalized to meet
individual homeowners’ needs.
HafenCity Hamburg and IBA Hamburg share the vision of a European
city meeting the challenges of the future without abandoning its own tradition
and character. Through the joint exhibition, HafenCity and IBA Hamburg
also seek to initiate an international debate on the future of large cities,
informed by projects and experiences of other European cities. “In 2013
the IBA Hamburg is celebrating the culmination of seven years of development;
HafenCity has been under construction for eleven years,” says Uli
Hellweg. “It is a good point in time to encourage debate in a European
context, and to share Hamburg’s vision of the future with cities in the US.”
At the heart of the exhibition is an outsized compass
symbolically pointing the way to the city of the future. The directional
points of the compass have been replaced with four major themes: Growing
City, Open City, Smart City and Civic City. These form the conceptual
framework to explain the strategies and projects which HafenCity Hamburg and
IBA Hamburg are harnessing to meet the challenges of the future. “Building
The City Anew” is devoted to a diversity of approaches that respond to the
strategic responsibilities of European cities. Each urban development
project is confronted by a unique set of preconditions. The IBA Hamburg
is transforming the structure of a ‘metrozone’, a previously marginalized urban
area, through selective measures such as renovation and conversion activities;
new cost and energy-efficient buildings and cultural activities that unite a
historically diverse community.
The HafenCity Hamburg has redefined a major inner city area
formerly devoted to port and industrial uses with award-winning architectural
design and the highest standards for building energy efficiency. ”With
its attractive pathways and excellent connections to public transport, HafenCity
encourages people to leave their cars at home, says Jürgen
Bruns-Berentelg. “The intensive mix of uses and the density of building
create attractive short distances, which can be easily covered on foot or by
bicycle – and most extend along the waterfront.”
“Building the City Anew” was previously shown in Europe,
including the EU parliament in Brussels. The US tour was launched in
Baltimore in September and exhibitions in Chicago and Washington D.C. will
follow this Boston showing.
