gmp builds next to the Hamburg Elbe bridges
HafenCity is currently undergoing expansion in the Elbbrücken Quarter. Last summer, the architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) won the competition that was held to design a congress hotel with a large conference hall on this key site at the tip of Baakenhafen basin. After a comprehensive phase of revisions, the congress hotel is now presented in updated form.
In the summer of 2018, gmp won the competition for the congress hotel in Hamburg’s new Elbbrücken district. The design has since been revised and is presented here in its updated form: The site is located in close proximity to the Elbbrücken U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations, also from gmp, which are linked by a skywalk into a transportation ensemble. A congress hotel will be built at the western edge of the Elbbrücken Quarter on Baakenhafen, with guest rooms for short and extended stays, a large conference area, a sky bar, and offices. The building conforms to the shape of the plot, taking the form of triangular block with an inner courtyard. It has a base of eight to nine stories and a 19-story hotel tower that is also conceived with a triangular plan. The tower, which is located on the north side, will make the building visible from the city center of Hamburg.
The two-tone exterior of red and a nuanced white interprets Hamburg’s typical clinker brick and envelops the building as a punched window facade with oblique wall reveals on one side. The facade is horizontally articulated at each floor of the base, and on the tower the design shifts to a two-story vertical articulation that dynamically emphasizes the upward movement of the 63.50 meter high tower.
The heart of the new building is the conference hall on the ground floor, which can provide seating for up to 1100 people and is framed by the congress lobby to the south and west. The walls of the hall are articulated by wooden slats hung in varying densities, giving it a warm character. The control rooms for video and sound are located on the first floor, and arranged around the congress lobby are 14 meeting rooms on the ground floor and first floor. Also on the ground floor are the lobby of the short-stay hotel and the elevator lobby of the extended-stay hotel. Access to all these functions is provided by a double-height arcade along Baakenwerder Straße on the west side of the congress hotel. The offices and a café are accessed from the east. The tower is crowned on the 18th floor by a sky bar with rooftop terrace and views over HafenCity. Construction is scheduled to start in 2020.
