The city of Hamburg has long been a testbed for architecture. From the breakthrough of expressionism in Chilehaus to the port reconversion into HafenCity, the city is on a constant evolution that pushes architecture.
During the last decade a series of high profile architecture competitions have shaped the city, while opening opportunities to a diverse group of architects. From renowned firms behind landmark projects to breakthrough ideas from young firms. And while each competition yields one built result, they are also archives of knowledge and potential ideas that are often buried. That’s why the Die ganze Stadt (“The Entire City”) exhibit in Hamburg provides a unique opportunity to dive into an amazing archive of thousands of unrealized ideas. Designed and curated by German-Japanese firm Kawahara Krause Architects and the architecture critic Kaye Geipel, an array of more than a thousand hanging banners display the 1,427 singular entries from 171 competitions, forming one singular mass that fills the main hall of the Baakenhöft in HafenCity.
How do we want to live and work together? And how can our built environment enable that? These are the very questions that urban planners, architects, landscape designers, developers and clients address during competitions that the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg initiates. Usually, the Winner Takes It All – as a rule, only one design can be implemented. And yet all of the submissions are rich in creative power and exciting solutions. Each of them is an intellectual contribution to the city’s future.
Karen Pein, Senator for Urban Development and Housing:
“Whether we’re talking about developing large neighbourhoods, sustainable building, good architecture or innovation in housing construction: architecture and planning competitions are of particular significance for our city in a whole range of building tasks. Moreover, they are an important urban planning tool in Hamburg’s further development. This exhibition demonstrates the creative deliberation that lies behind every architectural selection process. At the same time, it gives the public access to an impressive archive of ideas.”
Franz-Josef Höing, Chief Planning Officer and initiator of the exhibition:
“ ‘The Entire City’ is also an appreciation of the work of all those involved in the process, who engage intensively with the city, with a particular place and with a building task, who prepare and discuss designs, and who present them to a jury. Competitions, and the commitment they entail, continue to be a prerequisite of the kind of built environment for which Hamburg traditionally stands. It is not by chance that there are so many places here that make Hamburg a beautiful city.”
Tatsuya Kawahara and Ellen Kristina Krause, KAWAHARA KRAUSE ARCHITECTS, curatorial team:
"Not only the winning project, each individual entry to the competition has a value in itself. The great creative potential and the numerous reflections of the place and the tasks that they contain are a resource that ought to be used. At the same time, the individual competitions do not stand alone. In the exhibition we bring them all together. The overview of the many competitions that Hamburg has carried out in recent years depicts the places of change and themes that drive the city and urban society. A new overall picture is thus created from many individual images. It is only when this large quantity of contributions is seen in relation to one another that their real value becomes apparent - the possibility for new narratives and interpretations for the city as a whole and thus its potential for the future."
Kaye Geipel, Architecture critic, curatorial team:
“As a team of curators, we were attracted by the idea of showing for the first time in a single exhibition virtually all the architectural competitions and selection procedures of the last few years of a city - as a creative development tool for the entire city. In this way, the competition becomes a common and multi-voiced laboratory of ideas for the participating architects. More than 6000 plans are on display. For a comprehensible "archiving" of this abundance of ideas, a hanging and a coding system was designed that resembles an art project. Each individual plan can be traced back to its place and task in the city. That is why we speak of a large collective competition sculpture that is exhibited in Shed 29. As a curatorial team, we would like to see this richness of concepts continue to be worked on. It would be great if other cities were inspired to create comparable projects.”
Selected Program Highlights
Die ganze Stadt | The Entire City
22.06., 7pm
Opening Event with Karen Pein, Senator for Urban Development and Housing,
Franz-Josef Höing, Chief Planning Director
Keynote by Prof. Armin Nassehi.
Performance by the Hamburger Kammerballett
Archiv der Zukunft | The Archives of the Future
30.06, 6pm
Symposium with Françis Rambert (Director of the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris), Roberto Ohrt (Curator of “Aby Warburg: Bilderatlas Mnemosyne”), Julia Bolles-Wilson and Peter Wilson (Bolles+Wilson)
Perspectives on Hamburg from Abroad
11.07., 8:30am
Symposium by the Ministry for Urban Development and Housing, the Fritz-Schumacher-Gesellschaft and the Architecture Foundation
“Homo Urbanus –The People of the City”
14.07. 7pm
Film Screening with artis Ila Bêka (Bêka & Lemoine)
Check the full programme on www.hamburg.de/dieganzestadt.
