The other side of HafenCity.
The Oberhafenhallen ensemble comprises three halls of a former goods depot which was originally used for the trans-shipment of goods between rail, road and water. In the Oberhafenhallen district, an artistic and cultural location with an air of spontaneity has established itself. The halls are now the home of studios, small businesses, offices and exhibition areas for uses by the creative professions.
For their new usage, all the halls have been rebuilt and upgraded according to the most up-to-date standards. For this, extensive examinations of the existing structures and recalculations were required to assess their stability. Since the area is also located outside of the protective dykes, high-tide events with flooding scenarios also had to be considered.
For us as engineers, the hall constructions offered a wide and challenging field of activity. After suffering damage during the Second World War, the halls were rebuilt after the war ended. They combine a multiplicity of engineering building methods such as brickwork, reinforced concrete, steel and timber construction. In their more than 70 years of existence, the halls have been rebuilt time and time again, and thus tell the story of the district’s history.
The cultural and creative centre of the Oberhafenhallen with its living history forms a unique antithesis to the urban development redesign of HafenCity Hamburg.
