Hamburg University of Fine Arts gets new building

24. February 2020

A competition with Europe-wide participation was to call for the greatest possible potential in architectural quality for the extension of the Hamburg University of Fine Arts. The light-space proportion and functionality, which are important for artistic production facilities, as well as the urbanistic appearance of the planned building played a decisive role in the selection. 15 renowned architectural firms – such as Staab, Kuehn Malvezzi, gmp, Brandlhuber+, Winking und Froh, Caruso St. John – submitted their designs for the extension. The winners of the competition are the Hamburg architects Winking – Froh Architekten BDA.

Hamburg University of Fine Arts gets new building

The new building is to be constructed in the form of a “refined shell” directly adjacent to the listed Fritz Schumacher building on Lerchenfeld. The workshop building has a gross floor area of 2,900 square metres and is to be designed as a robust, simple workshop building and provide additional studio space for the various study areas of the HFBK. In view of the increasing number of students, the space available at the HFBK is already no longer sufficient, so that the new building is to be realised quickly using intelligent designs and robust materials. On four floors, generous studio space for 12-master classes as well as multi-purpose exhibition rooms on the ground floor will be created. The rooms for the students’ artistic work will be assigned to different professors of the HFBK. On the ground floor of the building, open gallery spaces are being planned to complement the existing exhibition spaces in the historical main building of the HFBK, which will take into account a variety of usage requirements.

Hamburg University of Fine Arts © Winking Froh Architekten GmbH

The immediate vicinity of the listed main building of the HFBK by Fritz Schumacher from 1911 – 1913 was taken into consideration in the planning. In view of this prominent building task, special emphasis was placed on the architectural concept and the urbanistic appearance.

By summer 2021, the extension is to be built on the HFBK campus at Lerchenfeld. A total budget of five million euros is available for the realisation.

Canopy for Dock 10 by Werner Sobek

24. February 2020

Werner Sobek designs the canopy for Dock 10 and thus the largest covered floating dock in Europe is created.

Dock 10, a floating dock of the Lürssen shipyard Blohm+Voss, is located in the heart of Hamburg, opposite the highly frequented landing stages. In the course of a structural workshop process, Werner Sobek designed a translucent membrane roofing for this structure. Under the protection of the textile hull, new buildings and repairs of ships can in future be carried out more independently of weather conditions and with a high proportion of natural daylight. The enclosure will also significantly reduce noise emissions.

Canopy for Dock 10 by Werner Sobek

Inspired by the maritime tradition of the location, the design combines the efficiency of lightweight constructions with the aesthetics of materials typical of shipbuilding. Opaque, slightly translucent textile surfaces reminiscent of sails stretch between the alternating inward and outwardly oriented trussed girders of the longitudinal facades. On the northern façade, the textile surfaces are not only translucent, but also partly transparent. Viewers on the opposite bank of the Elbe can thus gain an insight into the work going on in the dock through a shop window. The lightness of the facades is enhanced by the contrast with the lower part of the floating dock and the shadow gap between them.

Dock 10 © Werner Sobek Lürssen

The canopy equips the dock for the weather in Hamburg. With the enclosure of the 287 m long floating dock, the Bremen parent company is investing more than 13 million euros in the modernisation of the dock infrastructure, thus further strengthening the Hamburg shipyard location.

The design was penned by the Stuttgart architect and engineer Professor Dr. Werner Sobek, who is known for so-called engineering architecture. The 240 m long, 35 m high and more than 40 m wide hall construction will in future consist of lattice columns on the long side, which are arranged alternately turned inwards and outwards. The curved surfaces stretched between them create a folding which will enliven the long side by reflection and shadow casting. In this way, the floating dock is stylishly staged and integrates it into the world-famous Hamburg harbour panorama.

Dock 10 © Werner Sobek Lürssen

New NDR building in Hamburg: von Gerkan, Marg and Partners plan the new media house

24. February 2020

The new NDR building will be realized by gmp architects.

NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) is having its new building for a cross-media programme house in Hamburg-Lokstedt planned by the architectural firm gmp (Meinhard von Gerkan, Marg und Partner). The selection of the design was made unanimously by the jury chaired by NDR Director-General Joachim Knuth. The decision-making committee also included Hamburg’s Chief Building Director Franz-Josef Höing and Rolf Schuster, Head of the Department of Economics, Building and Environment of the Eimsbüttel District Office.

The new construction became necessary because a high-rise building had to be closed at short notice in November 2018 following asbestos findings. In the new building at the Hamburg-Lokstedt site, editorial offices will plan and produce content jointly for all playout channels, i.e. for television, radio and online.

New NDR building in Hamburg : von Gerkan, Marg and Partners plan the new media house

The architects were able to convince the jury with their design for “House 24”. On the premises of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Lokstedt, the existing ensemble is continued by the new building, which forms the first building block of the planned extension.

Lokstedt NDR © gmp

The entrance situation of the NDR site will be spatially defined to the east and offers the possibility of connecting the new work areas with the old stock in the future. The planned expansion is characterised by flexibly designed office and production areas with plenty of daylight, sustainable low-tech building equipment and the highest possible proportion of recyclable building materials.

With a gesture of welcome, the U-shaped building opens to the south, thus interlocking the architecture with the park-like surroundings. The main entrance to the new building is on the north side on the east-west running “Boulevard”.

The façade design is based on the predominant horizontal arrangement of the surroundings. In order to structure the six storeys, the upper five storeys are separated from each other by circumferential facade bands. With room-high glazing, the ground floor is visually set apart from the higher floors with light-coloured facade elements. The entrance façade is offset inwards and thus becomes a weather-protected entrance. This leads to an elongated foyer, which connects both vertical access cores. The large south-facing conference rooms can be varied in size by means of mobile partition walls or the foyer can be generously extended. Direct access to an outdoor terrace is planned from here.

The architects were able to meet the demand for high flexibility in office and production areas through the dimensions of the building. Thus, various office organisation forms from cellular offices to combi offices to open-plan offices or even mixed forms can be realised.

The new program house is to offer space for more than 550 workstations. Completion of the new building at the NDR site in Lokstedt in the Hamburg-Eimsbüttel district is scheduled for autumn 2023.

Lokstedt NDR © gmp

Minimalist Loft in the Elbphilharmonie

30. January 2020

The location could hardly be more beautiful. The Minimalist Loft is located on the 18th floor of
the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall, the new Hamburg landmark designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron.

Sitting on top of the old Kaispeicher, the glass structure with its undulating roof and spectacular glass façade includes not only concert halls, a hotel and restaurants, but also apartments on the western tip.

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

On the 18th floor, with a fantastic view of the Elbe and the extensive port facilities, lies the 132 square metres Minimalist Loft. It opens up to the view over its entire width with floor-to-ceiling glazing.

24 hours, in the most diverse atmospheres, the ship’s operation on the Elbe unwinds here like a film before your eyes. The south-west oriented apartment is characterized by a closed “back” to the entrance area and room-high glazing. In the middle of the glass front is the loggia with a striking U-shaped parapet element, the so-called tuning fork. The view sweeps over the formative white parapet element and the glass surfaces printed with reflecting dots onto the impressive harbour landscape.

Minimalist Loft in the Elbphilharmonie

These special characteristics inspired the design idea of Schmutz & Partner, the office responsible for the interior design. “To visually transform this unique harbour panorama into the depth of the rooms” was his goal, explains Professor Eduard Schmutz.

This is achieved on the one hand by creating a transparent, open sequence of rooms with a freely adjustable “kitchen and cupboard container”. On the other hand, the corresponding reflective surfaces, which also allow the virtual view of the harbour-landscape to be experienced in the opposite direction.

Sliding doors made of profiled cast glass allow the adjacent room areas to be merged or separated.
The volume of the various room zones can be increased or decreased according to the user’s wishes
and the rhythm of the day.

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

The different daylight and artificial light moods thus offer ever new and surprising light and room atmospheres. Black parquet flooring, basalt stone, steel and various glass surfaces take over the aura of the industrial harbour atmosphere in a figurative sense. The colour design supports this idea with a broken orange tone for the free-standing “container” and corresponding colour tones of the glass surfaces for the painted fixtures and wall surfaces.

Furniture by Jean Prouvé, Charles Eames, Gae Aulenti and a sofa bed developed for the special room staging as well as the master bed support the unique living atmosphere.

Only the view of the river Elbe, the harbour and the shipping traffic sometimes steals the show from the wonderfully designed apartment.

Would you also like to stand in the open loggia with a glass of wine in your hand after a great concert in the Elbphilharmonie? Whether as a business apartment or for a private weekend in the most beautiful city in the world, as the people of Hamburg like to say, you too can rent this special ambience in the Minimalistic Loft for a limited period of time.

Further information and prices can be found here.

Elbphilharmonie © Iwan Baan

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

Living Elbphilharmonie Interior Design Prof. Edurad Schmutz © Rudi Schmutz

Living Elbphilharmonie floor plan © Prof. Edurad Schmutz

Grasbrook – the new district

21. January 2020

Grasbrook – the new district will play a central role in Hamburg’s urban development for the coming decades. It will continue the development of the inner-city HafenCity, especially the eastern part, and thus create a leap of inner-city qualities to the southern side of the Elbe.

The new Grasbrook district will comprise not only about 45 hectares of land but also the water areas of the Moldau and Saale harbours, making a total area of about 64 hectares.

Grasbrook – the new district

The masterplan provides apartments for about 6,000 residents, a third of which will be subsidized housing, about 16,000 jobs, shopping facilities for everyday needs, services, a primary school, sports facilities and day-care centres, and about four kilometres of publicly accessible promenades and open spaces directly on the waterfront. In addition, the German Port Museum is to be built on the Grasbrook.

In September the “competition dialogue” was launched, which will lead to an overall urban and open space planning-picture of the new district by April 2020. The “competition dialogue” was chosen as the procedure, which allows for continuous dialogue and extensive public participation. As a particularly innovative element, open-space planning is not treated as a “subsequent greening”, but as an equal competition component at the same time as urban development. The Grasbrook is not to be developed as an isolated “island”, but in context with the surrounding urban spaces.

First phase

The Grasbrook is expected to be divided into three quarters: The quarters “Moldauhafenquartier”, “Freihafenelbquartier” and “Hafentorquartier”. The “Moldauhafenquartier” and “Freihafenelbquartier” quarters will be converted into a mixed-use area for living and working. The “Hafentorquartier” will be reserved for low-emission port-related uses (including offices, research facilities, laboratories and production) that have yet to be defined.

The development of the “Hafentorquartier” is intended to resolve conflicts of use between the parts of the Kleiner Grasbrook remaining in port use and the new Grasbrook district, with its mixed uses.

The first phase of the “competition dialogue” on the Grasbrook was concluded at the beginning of December 2019 with the first jury decision: Since then, the six winning designs have been finalised and will now be further processed in the second phase.

The planning teams (one office from urban development and one from open space divisions) are:

Mandaworks AB (Stockholm) mit Karres en Brands RB (Hilversum)
ADEPT ApS (Kopenhagen) mit Studio Vulkan Landschaftsarchitektur GmbH (Zürich)
Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. (Basel) mit VOGT Landschaftsarchitekten AG (Zürich)

Mandaworks AB (Stockholm) with Karres en Brands RB (Hilversum)

The office Mandaworks from Sweden pursues a holistic approach of urban and landscape planning. The design for the Grasbrook is correspondingly far-reaching in its concepts for open space – especially the proposal to keep the east bank of the Moldau and Saalehafen completely free of development and instead turn it into a linear sports park. The residents of the neighbouring Veddel are also to be specifically addressed. New bridges cross the harbour basins and connect the individual quarters. “We want to preserve the impressive flying roof of the Überseezentrum and create a further attraction by programming the area underneath it,” Mandaworks says.

The Dutch open-space planners Karres en Brands focus on a clear public space structure: “We are promoting a city of ‘urban hacking’ that enables participation, appropriation and co-responsibility, but at the same time offers a stable spatial framework. The jury was also convinced by the idea of a consistent link to the neighbouring Veddel. The idea lies in a wide underpass from a new promenade along the Moldauhafen to a new square on the northern Veddel. On the north bank towards the Elbe, this design envisages a spacious park with sports facilities and promenades leading to the water. On the north side of the Veddel harbour, a new interpretation of the flying roof of the Überseezentrum can be found.

Grasbrook © Mandaworks

Grasbrook © Mandaworks

Grasbrook © Karres en Brands

ADEPT ApS (Copenhagen) with Studio Vulkan Landschaftsarchitektur GmbH (Zurich)

The Danish urban planning office ADEPT envisages a strong green and blue centre for the new district. “Instead of a ‘tabula rasa’ strategy, we intend to merge new, low-rise and urban building types with the enormous construction volumes of the Grasbrook harbour structures,” the authors describe their design. A central role will be played by the preservation or new construction of the flying roof of the Überseezentrum, which extends along the north bank of the Saalehafen to the far end of the central Moldauhafen quarter, and other “local structures” such as the banana ripening plant on the south bank of the Moldauhafen. To make the Veddel accessible to cyclists and pedestrians, a circular bridge over the road at the Saale harbour and the railway tracks has been suggested.

Studio Vulkan convinced the jury with many small squares and public spaces to create open quarters. With as few interventions in the space as possible, the design relies heavily on the forces of natural space on site. The focus is on the “Grasbrooker Tidepark”, which links the previously isolated areas together via a common green centre. “Here it can be tested how a life with the constant change of water levels can become part of the urban space. This is a matter of reinventing and reinterpreting a ‘Brook’ (swampy lowland) as an urban open space type: a freshwater tidal flat traversed by tideways and covered with reeds in the changing tides,” says Studio Vulkan.

Grasbrook © Studio Vulkan

Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. (Basel) with VOGT Landschaftsarchitekten AG (Zurich)

Herzog & de Meuron and VOGT landscape architects have already gained experience in HafenCity with the construction of the Elbe Philharmonic Hall and Lohsepark. Independently of each other, both Swiss offices have now proposed a new centre on the site of the former Überseezentrum. In order to achieve the desired noise protection for the residential development and the necessary floor space, they are planning high-density commercial buildings facing the neighbouring Veddel and in part also to the south towards the adjacent port. Herzog & de Meuron is providing the central residential quarter between the Moldauhafen harbour and the Elbe with a new water area around which a continually loosened up and continuously greened residential development is laid out in two rows.

In this design, a large green open space forms the centre of the new district. “It may seem conservative to choose a classic landscape park as a planning setting for the new district, but it is a clear statement,” the jury said. The park offers various attractions such as a large meadow, groups of trees and a spectacular view of the museum ship “Peking”. The north bank on the Elbe is designed as a narrow open space on two spatial levels. One can reach the water or enjoy the view of the Elbe from raised bastions. At the interface of the Saale and Moldau harbours, another small park is planned, which slopes down to the water. Towards the neighbouring Veddel as well as towards the port, a high, compact development rises, which, like the comparable concepts of Herzog & de Meuron, has been called for revision.

Grasbrook © Herzog & de Meuron

Grasbrook © Herzog & de Meuron

Lots of greenery, leisure and sports facilities on the waterfront, spectacular new roof constructions, including public meeting places or space for creative start-ups, and low-car traffic concepts.

These are just some of the ideas for the new Grasbrook district, which are now being further substantiated by the planning teams newly assembled from Urban Development and Open Space.

There are again opportunities for participation in this phase: as an important intermediate step in the consolidation phase, citizens will have the opportunity to talk to the planning teams, get to know and discuss their thinking and working process.

On the basis of the results of the urban design ideas competition, which are expected to be available in April 2020, a functional plan will be developed in 2020, followed by the formal planning procedures (land use plan, development plan). There will be extensive public participation in all phases of development. The planned events will be announced in advance.

More appointments for Grasbrook – the new district :
Bürgerwerkstatt Grasbrook, Saturday, 25. January 2020 – 10h00 until 17h00 at Cruise Center HafenCity

Final presentation, Thursday, 2nd April 2020 – 17h00 until 21h00

First high-rise building in Cradle 2 Cradle principle

14. January 2020

Landmarken AG, in cooperation with kadawittfeldarchitektur, will build Germany’s first high-rise residential building based on the cradle-2-cradle principle. Moringa, as the name suggests, is realised in a particularly sustainable manner with recyclable materials and also offers green areas on and around the building to at least the same extent as the built-up area of the land.

According to the investor, the name Moringa is derived from a healthy “super plant”, the so-called wonder tree Moringa Olifeira, to which many positive characteristics are attributed.

On the approximately 4,740 square meter construction site in Elbbrücken Quarter, directly on the northern shore of Baakenhafen, the project is beeing developed in HafenCity, which combines sustainable construction, subsidised housing and social infrastructure.

As is well known, buildings are responsible for 40 percent of all CO² emissions, Cradle 2 Cradle is supposed to provide the answer. The principle: Precious resources should not be wasted, but reused. Therefore, healthy materials are used in Moringa, the majority of the constructions are separable, deconstructable and recyclable. Almost all components of the buildings can be reintegrated into
the cycle of nature or recycled in a sensible way. As green lungs, the Moringa produces oxygen, reduce pollutants and summer heat island effects in the city.

First high-rise residential building based on the Cradle 2 Cradle principle

In its creativly developed concept, this project combines family-friendly living with neighbourhood community ideas and public uses on the ground floors. Rental apartments are being built on 17,700 of just over 20,000 square meters GFA, 33 percent of the apartments are publicly subsidized and create living space for families, couples, young people and seniors of all income levels. People living alone in the singles capital of Hamburg, the co-living concept of Moringa also offers shared apartments, common areas and services such as a community app for better connectivity.

In addition to residential use, Moringa will also have a co-working space, a daycare center and offers such as event rooms and exhibition space, fitness or lounge area as well as a gastronomy with terrace on the ground floor. Besides almost 70 parking spaces for cars (30 percent of which is reserved for car sharing), the underground car park will offer at least three times the amount for bicycles. Moringa also includes a mobility-sharing concept with offers ranging from cargo bikes to e-cars.

Moringa © kadawittfeldarchitektur

The architecture of the ensemble, consisting of three building sections grouped around a green inner courtyard, was designed by kadawittfeldarchitektur, who, together with the investor, have developed the concept that is to be groundbreaking for the future of the real estate and construction industry.

Landmarken AG expects to be able to submit the building application in around twelve months. After receiving the building permit, around two years of construction time are planned, so that completion could take place at the end of 2023.

Innovation Port by MVRDV

18. December 2019

On 28th November 2019 the opening of the first building of the Hamburg Innovation Port took place.
It’s the first step of a new, development in Channel Hamburg, the Hanse City’s southern high-tech hub,
designed by MVRDV and Berlin-based morePlatz architects, who won the competition for the development of a dense and programmatic mixed-use urban plan in 2016.

Hamburg Innovation Port MVRDV © Allard van der Hoek

The 20,000m2 site for Hamburg Innovation Port, developed by HC Hagemann, is located on Blohmstrasse, on the banks of old Harburger Schloss in the Channel Hamburg development. Around 60,000m2 of gross floor space will be built over several construction phases for more than 2,500 jobs and the planned expansion of Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). It is also intended to facilitate the networking of business and science and offer an ideal environment to establish a vibrant start-up scene. Through its 1.35m grid, the masterplan of HIP offers enough flexibility to change the programme at any point throughout its realisation and allows enterprises of all sizes to occupy the various buildings. This flexibility is an essential characteristic, enabling each of the five buildings to be realised individually.

Innovation Port by MVRDV

The first completed building at Blohmstrasse 15 is conceived as two stacked volumes which combined have a gross floor area of 6,000m2. It provides offices of different sizes, and on the 2nd floor includes laboratories for TU Hamburg and a start-up for Robotics. The ground floor area, with a transparent glass façade, hosts the Institute for Waste Management of the TUHH, forming an interesting dialogue with the city while the upper part of the building is clad with a ventilated tile façade.

The completion of the first building marks the first step in the completion of what founding partner of MVRDV Jacob van Rijs envisions as a high density area “to create a vibrant neighbourhood and to make the best use of this fantastic location at the waterside, a former cattle food factory site.”

Bunker St. Pauli

8. October 2019

The amazing Bunker St. Pauli, right in the heart of the city, will extend over five storeys in the shape of a pyramid. One of the project’s most eye-catching features is the landscaping plans: a spectacular roof-top garden, in all likelihood one of a kind in Germany, with a fantastic panoramic view over Hamburg, in line of sight of the Elbphilharmonie and a leafy and meandering green walkway that will surround the bunker.

In addition to this new public rooftop park, the bunker will host a memorial for the victims of the Nazi regime and the Second World War. In addition, spaces for culture, exhibitions and a hall for sports and cultural events will be created.

Bunker St. Pauli

NH Hotel Group has won the tender to operate the new nhow Hotels that will be built in the top of the stunning Bunker St. Pauli. The building will have 136 rooms, a bar, a café and a restaurant. It is scheduled to open mid-2021. The differentiating factor that tipped landlord EHP Erste Hanseatische Projektmanagement GmbH and property developer Matzen Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG in NH Hotel Group’s favour was its comprehensive proposal, plans that dovetail with the creative scene in the Schanzenviertel district in St. Pauli.

Built in 1942 in just 300 days, even with the use of forced laborers, the bunker on Feldstraße was one of two so-called flak towers, initially intended primarily for air defense. It was also propaganda of the Nazi regime. During the II World War, tens of thousands of Hamburgers found protection against Allied air raids. Meanwhile, the bunker St. Pauli has long been home to companies from the media, culture and creative industries., and will remain there after the hotel is built in the rooftop.

International Bauforum 2019

7. August 2019

From 19th to 24th August, the Hamburg Deichtorhallen will be turned into a design workshop for the future of the Magistralen, the international Bauforum 2019.

The Magistralen, in their function as arterial corridors, are the city’s entrances, first addresses, local centres – and also its dividers, barriers and transit spaces. With their heterogeneous architectural, urban, transport and social structures, they shape the image of the metropolis and are thus a location of great challenges and opportunities for Hamburg’s future development.

The Ministry for Urban Development has invited around 150 experts and creatives from the fields of architecture, open space, traffic and town planning, science and culture to turn their minds to these urban spaces under the aegis of a “Bauforum”. The Bauforum is a Hamburg event format of long tradition. Within a mixture of a creative hackathon and a specialist conference with a festival atmosphere, Hamburg’s own specialists will come together with renowned national and international experts to draw up new ideas together on the important topics and sites of urban development. Several big Hamburg development projects of the recent past were preceded by a Bauforum: subsequently, the “Perlenkette” on the banks of the Elbe in Altona (Bauforum 1985), the HafenCity (Bauforum 1989) and the “Sprung über die Elbe” (Bauforum 2003) have all taken physical form.

International Bauforum 2019 | Magistralen

Seven very different Magistralen running through all the districts of Hamburg have been selected for the international Bauforum. They differ in length, in the historical development of sequential uses and structures to each side of them, and in their traffic handling capability. In this way, they all face different challenges and offer different potential as drivers for the city around them. At the same time, there are similarities: the Magistralen concentrate traffic flows and link city and countryside, while themselves having a certain centrality. At the same time, the surrounding spaces are dominated by traffic – an exclusivity that must be rethought, especially as innovation and changing patterns of use in the mobility field are opening up new opportunities. On the edges of the Magistralen and in the adjoining areas of the city, there is still potential for diverse urban activities. Also important is the potential for open space: the once purely functional areas along these traffic arteries come into focus as a potential urban backbone for their neighbourhoods, while valuable green spaces in the vicinity can be better set off against their surroundings.

The Bauforum offers the chance to look to the future and draw up new development horizons for these complex spaces, in order to enrich the social debate about the future of the city. All results of Bauforum Magistralen 2019 will be presented and discussed on Sunday, 24 August. The Bauforum will be accompanied by a diverse public programme of specialist lectures and cultural events.

The whole program can be downloaded here International Bauforum

Guiding Architects meeting in Andalucía

4. March 2019

This year the Guiding Architects Meeting took place in Andalucía. It was hosted by Blanca, our Guiding Architects Member in Andalucía. The last year has been very successful for all members with more than 3.000 tours and almost 36.000 participants. The meeting this year was the first informal meeting. Therefore, we were less focused on bureaucracy but on continuous development.

Blanca explained that Andalucía has a surface of 87.268 square kilometres and is therefore bigger than Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria or Switzerland. The different landscapes have various colours and scents, the special light has become a profound element of the architecture in this region. Andalucía is placed at the interface of Europe and Africa, where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea meet. Many different cultures have left their traces in this area and in the turn of history have contributed to an unbelievable heritage. Andalucía has a lot to offer: Only 40 kilometres away from the skiing area in the Sierra Nevada you will find tropical valleys or volcanic deserts.

After a morning of skiing on top of the mountains in the Sierra Nevada we had a complete change of scenery in the afternoon. The bus took us to the sea in only 30 minutes, where a sunny spring day was expecting us. After a tasty Paella lunch in one of the beach bars, we went for a stroll along the coast.

What is a visit of Granada without visiting the Alhambra!
On the next morning we met at the Plaza Nueva and experienced the iconic building (which in reality is a whole city) led by Blanca. We were divided in different teams. That way we had a great combination of team building event and architectural guided tour. We had to split the tasks within our teams in order to be able to answer all the tricky questions Blanca had prepared. What an experience!

The Alhambra was built in the 13. and 14th century from the Moors as the glorious residence of the Kings of the Nasrids. It is the landmark of Granada and a real crowd-puller. Luckily Blanca had reserved tickets months before.

We were especially lucky, because Blancas family is one of the few that is still living in the Alhambra. We were treated to a coffee break in the patio of the house of Blancas uncle inside the Alhambra. Later on we even used the meeting room in the legendary Palace of Charles V. for the presentation of our progress.

Saturday was designated to continuous education. We had chosen the school of architecture as our meeting place. The school is located at Campo del Principe in the heart of the old Jewish quarter of Realejo. Team building, workshops and a marketing lecture where on the agenda before Blanca explained the architectural school on a guided tour to us as well.

Guiding Architects meeting in Andalucía

On our last day, Sunday, Blanca introduced us to the city of Granada in a different way. We crossed the town in one section, starting at the highest point and ending at the lowest.

In the morning the bus took us all the way up to the top of the mountain San Miguel with its fascinating view over the snow covered mountains on one, and Granada with the Alhambra on the other side. We experienced how the landscape and the town are connected with each other and how a certain chaos also builds up an interesting contrast. Up here Antonio Jiménez Torrecilla has realized a small, but very impressive project: the Nazari Wall.

A wall that is intended to provide visual continuity (especially in a distant view) for the stretch of wall, redefining the lost historical boundary and protecting the original remains.

Structurally, the massive and solid presence becomes unnecessary, so its interior becomes an empty space, a genuine singular point of the project: a passage that allows us to walk inside the walls, a mysterious doorway that connects two historically different parts of the city, evoking the underground Granada and at the same time, the hallways of the defensive enclosures. In the new wall, a simple stacking of stone slabs arranged one above the other leave a series of minimum random gaps that from the inside, allow a view of the city. A contemporary, fragmented and changing view that recreates the view we have from the lattice of the Alhambra.

A long stone staircase led us all the way down from here to El Albaicín. It is the oldest quarter of Granada. White, terrace shaped buildings, angled streets and small squares remind us of the Moorish background of the city.

We visited another interesting project of Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas, the museum Jose Guerrero. Afterwards we continued into the city centre. The last project was as well the lowest point of the tour. The new Underground station „Genil“, also designed by Antonio Jiménez Torrecillas.

Unfortunately our travel was almost over by now. We have experienced a region, that relates to its cultural roots and creates contemporary architecture in dialogue to the historical background.
Muchas Gracias Blanca! Thank you Guiding Architects!

Hamburg University of Fine Arts gets new building