We are talking about the development of the Baakenhafen quarter in the eastern part of Hafencity, the former port of Hamburg. The quarter will be made up of residential buildings and office buildings on the banks of the Elbe. Some of these buildings will be located directly on the water, and six residential towers on piles are planned in the center of the ensemble - they became the subject of the competition.
In addition to Shigeru Ban, prizes were taken by the Chicago bureau Studio Gang (2nd place) and Szyszkowitz-Kowalski + Partner from Graz (3rd place). Delugan Meissl (Vienna), GRAFT (Berlin), Hadi Teherani Architects (Hamburg) also took part in the closed competition.
Ban's project impressed the jury with the thoughtfulness of the facades, which will combine wood, concrete and steel. “The consistency of the concept [of the interior] and the exterior” was highly appreciated by the jury. Duplex apartments in the Bana project are "read" from the outside thanks to the correspondingly located one- and two-storey balconies and loggias. The six towers are grouped in two on the plan, each pair of buildings is connected by walkways that lead to the embankment and connect the houses to the moorings.
In the Garden in the Harbor project by Studio Gang, which won second place, the overall plan pattern is unique: each pair of towers, resembling two flowers, seems to grow on a “stem” of common footbridges.
The Szyszkowitz-Kowalski bureau presented a project in which compact cubic volumes of residential towers are raised high above the water surface using piles of an unusual design.
Since all three projects were liked by the jury and were considered suitable for implementation, it remains to be seen whether a combination of all three options can be realized.
