The urban planning competition for the expansion of Hamburg’s main station has been launched. The City of Hamburg is launching a competition in coordination with Deutsche Bahn. It is an important step on the way to the expansion of Hamburg’s main station: With the public announcement of the urban and open space planning competition on January 29, 2021, the Europe-wide application and selection process starts, in which architectural firms, landscape architects and urban planners can now apply directly. The competition is being organized by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, represented by ReGe Hamburg and in close cooperation with Deutsche Bahn (DB).
Hamburg Hbf © Deutsche Bahn AG / Oliver Lang
The process is the starting point for the expansion of Hamburg’s main station and the further development of the entire station environment. The capacity of the main station is increasingly reaching its limits due to the increase in travelers and passers-by. A structural extension of the traffic junction is urgently required. The aim of the planning competition is to obtain an integrated overall picture and to create infrastructurally, architecturally and urbanistically appropriate solutions for the main station and the surrounding area in order to advance the mobility turnaround. The requirements of the passengers as well as the transport companies and tradespeople are the focus here. At the same time, it is important to treat the issue of historic preservation and the neighborhoods affected by the conversion with respect.
Urban planning competition for the extension of the main station Hamburg
Following the start of the tendering competition, 30 offices will enter the first phase of the competition from April 2021 to develop basic urban development concepts. The number of participants is deliberately set high in order to obtain as diverse and different concepts as possible.
These different concepts will be examined and evaluated in a first jury meeting in August 2021. In the second phase, 10 offices will then remain and will be called upon to prepare a detailed concept. A second jury meeting to select the winning design and announce the winners is scheduled for the end of 2021.
Rethinking the main station and its surroundings
The jury includes Dr. Dorothee Stapelfeldt, Senator for Urban Development and Housing, Dr. Anjes Tjarks, Senator for Transport and Mobility Change, and Franz-Josef Höing, Chief Planning Director of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, on the Hamburg side, as well as Sven Hantel, Member of the Management Board for Production DB Station & Service AG, and Oliver Hasenkamp, Head of Property Development and Planning DB Station & Service AG, on the DB side.
Selection procedure and public dialog process
The competition will be accompanied by a public dialog process, the results of which will be incorporated into the concepts. In the form of several events, citizens will be invited to contribute their comments and ideas to the competition. This process will start with an initial digital information event with parallel online participation in mid-March 2021.
The winning design of the competition is to form the basis for defining the guidelines for the expansion of the main station and the urban design of the immediate neighborhood for the coming years and decades.
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