HafenCity - Hamburg

In this post I want to talk about HafenCity a project which takes part in a region of Hamburg and which my colleagues and I visited last week.

I don't want to explain exhaustively the whole project because you can find a lot of information about it easily surffing on internet. For that reason I am going to write the main points of HafenCity and then just show my opinion about it.

The ESSENTIAL points on which the project is based are:

- Sustainability: The buildings should be efficient and reduce the consumition of energy. Some buildings have solar panels on the roof to generate energy for heating. The way to organise the city is also sustainable because the distances among different services are quite closed. You can go everywere walking or cycling and the traffic is reduced.

But I expected this city to be more sustainable that it is actually. Before being there I thought all the building use reneweable energies and were constructed with ecofriendly materials. But when we were there I realized that the buildings are quite singular, with glass in the facades and really different between them. I don't consider this type of construction is sustainable. More energy is needed for balance the calories that the buildings lose in the glass surfaces. And also the standarization of the buildings could reduce significantly the effort and energy used to do it.

- Infrastructure: HafenCity is characterized by infrastructural features specific to the site. It's situated ouside Hamburg's dike line and it's not protected from flooding at 4-5,5m above sea level. For that reason elaborate protection measures are required. It has also a environmentally friendly transport. The residents of the area can rent a bicycle or car everytime and in different points of the city. This idea was the one that I like the most. I can't afford a car for myself and this idea of renting a car per hours or days is amazing. It could be a good way to save money and also reduce the emisions of CO2.

- Cultural Highlights: Many smaller-scale exhibitions and regular music events are organised in the area. During summer HafenCity offer events of almost every size, from pop-up street performances through to major events. An increasingly mixed public is therefore finding its way.

- Social Development: In theory there are a huge variety of housing in HafenCity, with a planned 7000 homes which includes a smaller mix of apartments to rent or buy in different price brackets. Although when my colleagues and I interviewed some inhabitants of HafenCity, the answer was always the same: "Really expensive apartments". And also all the families which we asked are living there because they have a grant from the goverment which pays a big part of the rent.

- Public Urban Spaces: A large number of green areas can also be found. Although my expectations were completly different. There are green areas but for me they are badly connected with the surroundings and without interest. I think the inhabitants need more green spaces in the streets to join together. In that way socialicing with your neighbours could be easier.

This week, as part of the Sustainable Cities course, my group and I have been working on answering the following questions:

What's a sustainable city? Is HafenCity a sustainable city? Why?

Taking into account this three elements; People, Profit and Planet which are present in any project we discuss about the requierements of a sustainable city. We also consider the three layers method which includes Underground, Occupation and Networks.

First of all, we arrived at the conclusion that we need the People. Planet and Profit working in balance in the project in which neither element is more important than the other. Also the Occupation, Underground and Networks should be connected between them. In that way, in a sustainable city the profit is not more important than the society, the welfare state or the environment. Make money of the project must not be the goal to achieve a sustainable city.

The three layers should be connected to guarantee a good project too. For example, the occupation is determined by the infrastructure that we have, but also depends on the resources that the planet is giving us (the underground). In HafenCity the infrastructure is built taking into account the waterlevel and the posibility of flood. And the occupation (functions) in the groundfloor changes if there is a flood.

We make these relations:

- Underground: Depending on how the resources are used there is a negative or positive effect on the planet. We can also relate the Underground layer to the People, because society uses these resources in one way or another.

-Networks: The infrastructure which is developed in our cities, etc. has a big impact on the planet. For example, developing infrastructure with lots of cycle paths reduces the CO2 emitions from cars. This layer can also be related to profit, in a way that decisions may be made to gain mroe or less money out of infrastructure developments. In the case of the cycle paths, we see how the needs of the planet come before a profit.

-Occupation: Depending on the profit which is looked for in a project, this will be one type of occupation or another. For example, if the profit is the priority, building private offices would be preffered to creating a public park. In relation to the People, as we see in the Underground layer, the society plays an active part in the development of the cities and their demands and choices effect the outcome.

Finally, after visiting the area and interviewing the people living or working there, we have doubts about the sustainability of th HafenCity. Although it incorporate sustainable concepts, it seems to us that the Profit of the project is the main goal.

Here is a video we made explaining our view of HafenCity: