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PUBLIC REALM PROJECTS / HAFENCITY-UNIVERSITY U-BAHN, HAMBURG, GERMANY
Hafencity used to be Hamburg’s shipping hub, at one time comprised of a rabbit war- ren of warehouses and storage facilities, it has played a key role in Germany’s social and economic history for many years. Sitting on the banks of the River Elbe, for emi- grants in the 20th century, be they looking for a better a life, or fleeing persecution, Hafencity was a gateway to the rest of the world. Germany’s Ellis Island. Growing out of a lucrative tax exemption Emperor Barbarossa bestowed on Hamburg in 1189, freeing the city from customs duty, the port became a dynamo of activity and development, the money made turning merchants into kings, who built impres- sive homes with elegant architecture on the canal islands of Brook, Kehrwieder and Wandrahm.
The Hafencity revolution was stalled by the Second World War, but it was the invention of the freight container in 1956 that did
the most damage. The new ships needed to carry the containers were too big for the harbour basin, the dockside facilities too small to be useful and the port duly moved to the south side of the Elbe in response, ending the area’s shipping dominance. Since the German senate granted official city status to the area in 1997, the brick warehouses that had started to fall empty have seen a new lease of life, as museums, multimedia agencies and a more creative based industry moved into the area. Today Hafencity boasts the International Maritime Museum of Hamburg and the impressive Elbe Philharmonic Hall, which is currently under construction on top of the red bricks of an old warehouse, past and future beautifully fused together in one building. The same can be said of the new Hafenc- ity-University Subway Station, the design of which was inspired by the shipping con- tainer itself, as well as the brick facades
of the warehouses and the cranes and the steel hulls of the docked ships which used to tower over the city. Created by Raupach Architects and Stauss Pedrazzini Industrial Design with lighting from Pfarré Lighting Design, the station’s look is heavily rooted in the life of the harbour and the industrial nature of the environment. With a heavy use of steel, light, colour and reflection, a powerful ambience has been created by hanging twelve metal-framed glass boxes in repetition over the middle of the platforms, each weighing six tons and each with the exact dimensions of a standard shipping container (6.5m x 2.8m x 2.8m). The translucent panels between the sharply defined frames are lit with 289 individual RGB LED emitters placed inside each capsule. To illuminate the platform with evenly distributed warm-white light, the underside of each container has been
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