<Bezirksamt Hamburg-Nord, Hamburg, 2024, Competition 1st prize

Five urban planning, landscape and architectural interventions are intended to strengthen the relationship between the monument of the Bezirksamt complex, Eppendorf and the Eppendorf Park to the west. In addition to the conversion and densification, the main focus is on opening up the green space to the public – how once, Paul Seitz envisioned it.

I Park - a “bridge” of new trees along the main roads.

II A new pavilion on the edge of Marie-Jonas-Platz.

III A “solitaire” volume addition in replacement of the “late” imitation extension from the 1980s.

IV A Floating high-rise above the former Library.

V Cultivating the Bezirksamt monument as a form of living.

I Park “bridge”: New trees will be planted along the flanking main road, creating a green “bridge” - albeit not in the literal sense - between the historic Eppendorf park and the modern open space. A new public path will pass the former library, the district office, the school and connect Lenhartzstrasse in the west with Robert-Koch-Strasse in the east. The open space becomes public, a new park, yet still providing a certain level of privacy through landscape features.

II “A new pavilion on the edge of Marie-Jonas-Platz”: It serves as a public bistro with a gallery and as an entrance foyer, for example for the exhibition rooms of the successful ‘Die Schlumper’ association. It stands on unsealed ground. This protects the roots of the surrounding trees. It is linked to component C1, like the hall of the registry office, component D1, and gains independence through its autonomous, “bulky” shape. The pavilion has a presence on the square.

III A “solitaire”: The building that replaces the extension, Building A, from the nineteen-eighties is freestanding, on pilotis. The original setting of the open space has been reclaimed. As a timber construction, the new building differs from the existing Bezirksamt (district office) building but adopts the modular structure of the facades. Accordingly, the shell with its grid-like structure and coffered fields appears to be part of the existing ensemble.

IV “Floating high-rise volume above the Library”: The extension of the Library adopts the rules of the extension of Seitz's basic figure. The residential storeys are physically connected to the base. At the same time, however, they appear to float above it. Slightly narrower than the Library, the residential volume allows the base to retain its independence. Seitz's design of the façades forms a varied basis for adjusting the compositional proximity of the striking extension to the ensemble of monuments. The collage of wall and windows marks the residential volume as a related structure of the district office. The closed parts of the structural glass side façades of the new high point are backed with PV elements. A “glazed loggia”, noise-barrier-balcony layer faces Eppendorf Park and the main avenue.

V “Cultivating the Bezirksamt monument as a form of living”: The basic shape of the multi-winged complex and the slightly set-back former Library will not be changed. The original substance from the 1950s and 1960s will be preserved, both the interior stairwells and corridors as well as the shells, which will be renovated. The northern wing B1, with its two-sided orientation towards the street, will continue to be used as an office for conservation reasons. Wing B will be organized as a cluster apartment. The apartments in component C will have individual, directly accessible balconies on the south side. The new workshops in component C1 in the narrower volume on Kümmellstrasse are linked to the office entrances in component B and are accessed via a new pavilion with bistro on Marie-Jonas-Platz. The current residential section of the district office, the new residential tower and the courtyard building currently accommodate 156 apartments, 35% of which meet the requirements of the housing subsidy program.