The Neue Hamburger Terrassen were built in Hamburg through a participatory process. They formed part of an extension of an initial urban development competition for the Wilhelmsburg neighbourhood that we won in 2008. Consisting of 33 individual and collective residences (20 houses and 13 housing units), it is laid out in a U-shape across four blocks. Aside from the particularity of forming part of an urban development plan that our firm designed, it is also characterised by its typological research, which was inspired by the model of the Terrassen, the local worker homes. However, we didn’t want to fall into the trap of passively recreating the iconic Terrasse, characterized by the homogeneity of its row housing and a central pedestrian path, and instead we provided a developed, contemporary version. We used its general organizing principles such as the row house. To meet the challenge of creating a new, sustainable urban model, we sought to integrate the themes of the individual house, the car, the definition of public and shared spaces, and environmental quality.

The lots are lined up facing one another along a central street in a variety of densities that thin out as one approaches the park. We reduced the width of the street as much as possible to limit traffic and create a greener, more pedestrian-oriented experience. Within a harmonious whole, each ensemble preserves its own identity. The ornamentation of the wood façades varies depending on their placement, and the service roads visually puncture the continuity of the urban front to reveal the surrounding green spaces. To establish a direct relation between the ground floor level and the public spaces, the parking spots are covered and placed at the buildings’ corners. No closure interrupts the private spaces that look out onto the street. The same is true for the gardens, which encourages their appropriation by the residents. The U-shaped configuration of the buildings accentuates the sense of intimacy to the paths, optimises the connection with the park, and creates a sense of interiority and corners. Three types of spaces and forms of socialisation were defined: the public with the front along the street, collective and private in the interior courtyards with shared and private gardens, as well as individual terraces.

The future residents were organised into Baugruppen, groups of 80 individuals who held the role of the commissioning client; it was they, the future residents, who chose the architects at a public presentation. Therefore, the housing units were designed in direct cooperation with the inhabitants through the implementation of a pedagogical support process, a wholly new social experience. One block also houses the storerooms and a common room. We maintained a coherent composition system for the façades, sides, and corners, but each residence is different from its neighbor and each typology is unique. There are multiple variations and, in terms of their programs, surface areas, or finishings, the residences were all custom arranged in function of residents’ demands. Even the design of the housing units expressed a form of “collective individualisation” that applies to both container and content. Lauded for its success, it would never have achieved such a level of quality without a mastery of the urban development plan and the treatment of the public, green spaces, whose considerable fluidity helps create natural boundaries between private and collective.

Client: IBA Hambourg - Neue Hamburger Terrassen GmBH / Cost: € 6.2M excl. VAT/ Surface: 4260 m² / Schedule: 2008 – 2013 / Team: Ingenieurbüro Scheyer (Structure), RMP Stephan Lenzen (Landscape)