<Plot 116, "The Tide" Elbbrücken Hanseatic City , Hamburg, 2021, Competition 1st prize

The Hamburg port area, which is surrounded by rivers and canals, is being integrated into the city center in large areas. Several thousand apartments in the new HafenCity district have already been built and 750 companies work here. Another quarter named after the Elbe bridges is being built at the eastern entrance to HafenCity. Located on both sides of HafenCity's longest harbor basin and on the Norderelbe, the Elbbrücken district will offer 11,000 workplaces and 1,400 apartments on the waterfront. Under the project name "The Tide", a program consisting of a museum for digital art, a children's daycare centre, commercial and restaurant space, around 260 student apartments and 600 rental and condominiums is planned on building plots 113 to 116 in a prominent setting on Kirchenpauerkai, which will be implemented with the participation of five international architecture firms.

Kirchenpauerstrasse, plot 116

The building by Diener & Diener between Kirchenpauerstrasse and Norderelbe comprises 122 apartments: Townhouses (live/work), multi-storey apartments, penthouse apartments. A communal roof terrace and public facilities on the first floor complement individual living.

While the cubature of the side parts of the building has hardly changed, the central figure represents a modification to the urban planning specification. Instead of parallel structures bordering a narrow inner courtyard, a volume stretches centrally between the side buildings and frames two differently oriented, spacious and open outdoor spaces.

The façades to the east and west are undulating and the rounded loggias are glazed for noise protection reasons. The apartments, which are orthogonal to the quayside, are oriented partly towards the water and partly towards the square due to the rotation of the loggias.

The wave shape creates an aesthetic link between the façades and the surrounding water of the Elbe. The building figure takes up the motif of oscillation, like the Shellhaus on Berlin's Landwehrkanal by Emil Fahrenkamp from 1932, and thus creates a distinctive sculptural effect reminiscent of the motion of the nearby water surfaces.

The central structure differs from the side wings. Here, the internal organization of the apartments, which are set across the Norderelbe in a north-south direction, is reflected in an almost constructivist- like, open façade structure that oscillates between rational economy and expressiveness.

Particular attention was paid to the issues of barrier-free accessibility and sustainability when planning the apartments. The building will meet the high requirements of the HafenCity Hamburg platinum eco-label.