Georgswerder

Georgswerder, a district of Wilhelmsburg, lies in the north-eastern part of the Elbe Island and adjoins the district of Veddel to the south. Georgswerder is in a relatively rural part of the island, yet is only 13 minutes from the main train station by bus or train. About 1,900 people live here. They have built up a close-knit local community and are engaged with their district. In addition to the many green spaces, the Georgswerder Energy Hill, transformed from a former landfill site, has become an important new open space within the district.

As part of the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg, a planning workshop for the future of the district was held in 2012, which resulted in the ‘Picture of the Future in Georgswerder 2025’ (Zukunftsbild Georgswerder 2025). This forms the basis of further planning considerations.

In 2014 the IBA commissioned three urban planning firms to put forward ideas for the Kirchenwiese planning area and a triangular site south of Fiskalische Straße as part of the ‘Living and Working in Georgswerder’ peer review process. This process involved three events that were open to the public, with interested citizens invited to discuss the designs of the planning offices and thus engage with various aspects of the district. For instance, the firms were tasked with developing ideas for a new district centre. In line with the ‘Picture of the Future in Georgswerder’ (Zukunftsbild Georgswerder), new commercial units that will not disrupt the residential areas are to be located on Fiskalische Straße, while developers in the Kirchenwiese planning area are to make full use of the potential for detached, semi-detached and terraced houses as well as apartment complexes along the Niedergeorgswerder Deich and Rahmwerder Straße.
As a result of the peer review process, the design provided by the Frankfurt-based firm raumwerk Architekten for the two sub-areas of the Fiskalische Straße Triangle and the district square was selected. For the third project area of Kirchenwiese, the design by LRW Architekten from Hamburg was chosen.

In order to promote the ongoing development of Georgswerder and expand upon the potential of green inner-city districts, in early 2015 the IBA Hamburg GmbH was commissioned to develop the project. Meanwhile more preliminary research has been carried out and the mandatory local planning processes were initiated in order to ensure approval for the urban planning ideas that had been drawn up together with the local residents.

For the part of Georgswerder-Kirchenwiese since then the functional planning, mandatory expert reports as well as further enquieries have been carried out. Based on these fundamentals next steps in the local planning process will be taken so that the building construction of the first houses will be presumably start in 2020.