EUROPAN 14 The Productive Cities – Die produktiven Städte

Productive uses form an integral part of inner cities, but to thrive they require a ready supply of convenient and affordable workspace. Hamburg, like other major European cities, is witnessing a dramatic loss of affordable space as regeneration projects and masterplans create an urban environment dominated by high value ‘clean’ uses. This project proposes an innovative solution to retain affordable workspace in the city by tying production space and a mixed community into the very masterplans that normally drive them out. Wilhelmsburg can be a productive city quarter that ensures a long term mixture of uses with an intertwined community of different users.

Development Concept
Phase 1 - Seed;
A new public square and semi-public main building (use-mix: construction skills centre/ workspace / café / cycle repair) provide the core infrastructure for interim-uses and festivals that create a focus and meeting-ground for the area’s identity.
Phase 2 – Incubator;
More permanent buildings around the square host productive and co-working uses, the arrival of more users starts to develop a community.
Phase 3 – Growth;
The further site is developed. Mixed groups of craftsmen, creatives and residents come together to build user-based-developments along the canal that will ensure the community’s long term stability.

A new space for production: Urban principles
- Resolve the two new and old urban grains (blocks vs. linear) together.
- Develop a simple mixed typology always with two separate access points
- Concentrate activity around one core space
- Create a public waterfront faced by productive uses
- Place productive uses towards the noise of the new motorway
- Use the public land along the canal as a field for experimentation

A new ‘Front to Back’ typology, the “Zeile” revisited
Based on the varied linear form of the nearby Palminwerke we create a new typology prototype that integrates living, atelier (ie. residential friendly working) and productive spaces into one building. Between the buildings ‘creative yards’ build mixed communities and provide access to the housing and ateliers. The vehicular access for the productive spaces is kept apart on the far end of the building.

Realization
An innovative ownership and financing model for certain sites in the project should provide affordable urban workspace for the long-term. Key principles:
- Create small communities that mix users
- Contractually lock sites out of the market
- Empower visionary individuals