Structural change through urban redevelopment
(Hamburg)
Source: Stadt Hamburg
The urban district of Wilhelmsburg (pop. 49,000) between the Hamburg inner-city and the southern district of Harburg is a shrinking urban district in the growing city of Hamburg. The continuing structural change of the manufacturing industry and the housing development and housing policy have increasingly led to an accumulation of social problems. In addition, large parts of Wilhelmsburg have poor transport connections to the centre of Hamburg because of its location of a large island in the Elbe. By comparison, the urban district has a large amount of development potential, which is also relevant for the entire city of Hamburg. This includes now unused, old industrial areas in the port, a diverse supply of apartments and large green spaces in the east of Wilhelmsburg with two nature reserves. In particular, the port area and commercial districts with their waterfront locations and canals offer particular development opportunities.
Source: Stadt Hamburg
The particular challenge lies in realising an overall, urban development policy concept for an extremely heterogeneous urban district with old industrial areas and rather rural districts. The approx. 600-hectare project area is characterised by partly inaccessible wastelands close to the water and residential areas without access to the water despite their proximity to it. Because of its island location, the district is also mainly bordered from the Hamburg centre and district of Harburg . For this neglected area, future options have to be developed and realised in stages.
As a result of the application concept for holding the Olympic Games, the plans for the International Garden Show 2013 and the International Building Exhibition 2013 by the city of Hamburg, the urban district Wilhelmsburg has moved into closer focus of the Hamburg urban development policy: The "Sprung über die Elbe" (Leap over of the Elbe) from the inner-city, via HafenCity, the Grasbrook, Veddel and Wilhelmsburg to Harburg is the core of the inner-city aims of the 2002 guideline "Metropole Hamburg - Wachsende Stadt". In the geographical middle of the city, there was a chance to group together the desired economic, social and ecological growth of the city with quality and gradually to upgrade the urban district of Wilhelmsburg.
The development potential of the waterways Reiherstieg, Spreehafen and the Wilhelmsburg canals has been started in three areas: By exploiting existing potential ("water"), by overcoming barriers ("paths") and with new settlement strategies on wastelands ("wasteland"). There are wasteland areas with a great potential for new places of work and leisure on the waterways. They offer the chance for settling forward-looking service and commercial companies in conjunction with green and leisure offers for the urban district. The use of the open spaces and the perceptibility and development of the river banks are linked with the inner-city environment.
The measures focus on the water-front development of the island in the Elbe. For example, two quays have been built for tourist and leisure boating use, sluices created for use by leisure shipping, footbridges for pedestrians have been created and paths built along the canals and waterways. For wasteland areas located on the waterways have been reactivated and prepared for a new use. New uses have been realised, leisure and culture-related temporary uses (rock festivals, open-air cinema) remain open as future commercial options. The realisation of measures was confronted with a difficult diversity of interests because of the Port Development Act, Free Port Status and Planning Code, as well as divergent claims to the development areas.
Within the framework of the ExWoSt research project "Stadtumbau-West", different impulse projects were realised in order to manage the structural change in the urban district.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2002 | Agreement of the guideline "Metropole Hamburg - Wachsende Stadt" with the leading project "Sprung über die Elbe" in the Hamburg Senate |
| 2003 | Start of the ExWoSt reserach project Stadtumbau West in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, general concept "Sprung über die Elbe" |
| 2004 | Stock analysis and measures plan for the Reiherstieg location |
| 2005 to 2007 | Implementation of measures |
Photography: Büro d*Ing Planung, Hamburg
Photography: Büro d*Ing Planung, Hamburg
Photography: Büro d*Ing Planung, Hamburg
The consistent embedding of the urban redevelopment process in a previously neglected urban district into the overall urban development strategies for Hamburg is an innovation. This gives the individual urban development measures an importance beyond the urban district and lots of synergies could be used. The public and technical attention of the urban district promoted creative commitment. In addition, it is expected that the planned large-scale events such as the IBA and the International Garden Show will lead to a greater willingness among private stakeholders to make investments. In this context, the use of an informal inner-city master concept, that is made concrete on the basis of different methodical steps, has been tried and tested. In this way, private stakeholders have been successfully activated and have contributed to a positive image.
The projekt site ist to be found at postal code: 21107 - town: Hamburg - street: Weimarer Straße.
Record inserted on 20.07.2009 by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR).
Last update: 24.01.2012
