Quarters

Urban spaces within a new topography

Holiday atmosphere on Dalmannkai promenade: many eating places have outside terraces looking over Grasbrook harbor and the striking Marco Polo Tower. With its views of the port, the promenade is a reminder of faraway places (© ELBE&FLUT)

A variety of lifestyles side by side  

Lifestyles in the immediate neighborhood are as disparate as the architecture: around 1,500 people live and work in the quarter. Young working singles and families live side by side with “empty nesters” (couples whose children have left home) and seniors. They meet up for activities in sport and cultural clubs and enlarge their networks, as they do socially through Netzwerk HafenCity e.V.  

This socially differentiated structure is also the result of a selective tendering and award procedure: sites for housing were not sold to the highest bidder. Instead the developer with the best use concept was given an exclusive option on the property. Many apartments are financially within reach of mid-income-earners, while some are in the luxury segment. Much more affordable living accommodation was realized through building cooperatives and three joint building ventures. As well as the residents, the employees of its approxi-mately 50 businesses also influence the quarter’s atmosphere. The majority of local businesses offer creative and modern services and – while construction in HafenCity continues – building services. Residents, office workers and visitors come into contact in the shops, bistros, cafés, restaurants, galleries and bars occupying 6,500 sqm of floor space on the ground floors of most buildings.

Some concepts pick up on the special characteristics of this former port area and transform them into business ideas.

In this neighborhood, a megaproject has succeeded for the first time in integrating public amenities into ground floors. The condition requiring 5m ceilings in ground floors in sale contracts and zoning plans, the reduced prices for ground floor space and the investor’s obligation to seek corresponding users have all contributed to this vitality.

The principle of dense mix of uses naturally also presents challenges which demand innovative solutions. For in-stance, residents want to have areas of privacy. The buildings on southern Dalmannkai are thus grouped around internal courtyards opening toward the south allowing unobstructed views of Grasbrookhafen harbor and the river, but largely hidden from the lower-lying promenade. It is no discrepancy that the private and public exist side by side in Am Sandtorpark/Dalmannkai – quite on the contrary, this coexistence is a definite sign of quality.