Quarters
Living, Leisure and Work with Double Waterfronts
On Baakenhafen, HafenCity’s largest harbor basin, a dense blend of residential and leisure uses, open-air spaces and workplaces is emerging
Over the next few years, a dense urban cityscape will grow up on the site – more than one kilometer in length – offering a range of housing and leisure opportunities, as well as commercial uses (© ELBE&FLUT) Start slideshow
Wide-ranging leisure facilities in green open spaces, jobs in small and medium structures, but above all homes in all forms: those are the main features of Baakenhafen neighborhood. Tendering of sites will begin in 2013.
Living by the water
In the space of just a few years, an urban residential and leisure quarter will develop around Baakenhafen, offering 1,800 apartments, some of them publicly subsidized, and some 5,000 jobs. Also on offer will be a variety of sports and leisure facilities, shopping, restaurants, hotels, a primary school and generously planted open spaces, as well as promenades. The planned centerpiece in the water at the heart of the neighborhood is a group of six residential towers, the HafenCity Waterhouses. Options have already been awarded for the first Baakenhafen plot. On Plot 81 a/b on the embankment to the northeast of the harbor, Campus Futura, a youth guest house with 480 beds and plenty of sports facilities, is planned, together with subsidized and privately financed or reasonably priced rental apartments. The ground floor spaces are destined for a private Blues Museum and other publicly accessible facilities. The developer is DS Bauconcept (Hamburg) with the JUFA group from Austria.
For Baakenhöft, the western tip of the neighborhood, the Masterplan foresees a special building around 70m high. The eventual use for this prominent key building will be decided in due course, but possibly not for another ten years. Until then, interim uses are foreseen for the site with exciting cultural and leisure opportunities, ship embarkation piers, open spaces and a hall of around 8,000 sqm. Tenders for its use will be invited in 2013.
Sheltered courtyards on the elbe
The urban planning competition for Baakenhafen neighborhood was decided in August 2011 with the winner APB Architekten (Hamburg). The moderate staggering in height between the planned buildings made this the winning design. It has since been refined and compressed into a function plan. The buildings will be four to seven stories high, with the uniformity of block structure façades broken up, with some smaller more open variations. On the Elbe side of the southern subsection of Baakenhafen, the Elbhöfen, a built structure consisting of spacious courtyards opening towards the river, form an incisive perimeter to the city.
The rhythmic block structures of the northern plots between the harbor and Versmannstrasse, with differently used buildings, guarantees a degree of protection against noise from Versmannstrasse and the railroad: on the street side the buildings form a solid block, but open out at the back towards Baakenhafen basin. Thanks to this planning concept, the courtyards facing the water are just as sheltered from noise as the residential areas, which will all have a noise-protected side.
