Building Cities Anew – Tomorrow’s Metropolis

Hamburg's Mayor Olaf Scholz and EU Commissioner Connie Hedegaard opened the specialist international conference "Building Cities Anew" with a Senate reception at the City Hall on Thursday 20 June. At the invitation of the HafenCity and the Internationale Bauausstellung IBA (International Building Exhibition) Hamburg, around 300 architects and urban planners from Europe, America, and Australia then spent Friday discussing future-oriented urban development. The exhibition "Building Cities Anew - A Journey to Tomorrow's Metropolis" went on view for the first time in Hamburg.

Hamburg, 20 June 2013."Intelligent climate protection counters not only climate change but, at the same time, also contributes to boosting our economy, creating new jobs, and improving the well-being of our citizens. In order to convert the challenges of climate change into opportunities we need the active support of cities. Hamburg is setting the standard here and it was not without good cause that it was declared the European Green Capital in 2011," said Connie Hedegaard, EU Commissioner for Climate Protection on Thursday evening in her address during the Senate reception for conference guests. Olaf Scholz, Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, declared: "With the HafenCity and the IBA, Hamburg provides the ideal setting for a specialist conference of this nature. This year we are seeing urban planners, architects, and those interested in architecture from all over the world come to our city in order to learn about the latest developments. In Hamburg you can already experience what the modern metropolis of the future will look like."

Prior to the Senate reception the international participants had already visited Hamburg's two large development areas, the HafenCity and the IBA Hamburg. Both projects represent the different facets of a mutual future challenge facing many urban areas: how can major cities develop and grow within the European understanding of urbanity without abandoning their character? This is a question also addressed by IBA Managing Director Uli Hellweg in the City Hall: "After seven years of project work, in its Presentation Year 2013 the IBA Hamburg is demonstrating paths to new cities and is furthering the urban development of the Elbe islands, initiated with the HafenCity as the first major stepping stone for the "Leap across the Elbe".

Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg, Chairman of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH: "In many respects the HafenCity is a model project for the redefinition and the development of a waterside European inner city, particularly with its high demands with regard to identity, urbanity, and ecological sustainability. We are pleased to have been able to contribute to an intensive exchange of knowledge between other European cities together with the IBA Hamburg".

The conference on 21 June provided the 300 or so participants with the opportunity to enter into dialogue with experts from both practice and academia. In addition to many others, the talks by Marty Jones, Rachel Smith, Professor Jens S. Dangschat, Professor Iain Borden, and Professor Markus Neppl on the issues of Smart City, Open City, Civic City, and Growing City provided answers to the challenges facing European cities in the future.

The travelling exhibition "Building Cities Anew - A Journey to Tomorrow's Metropolis", a joint venture by the IBA and the HafenCity which was opened during the conference also formed part of this international exchange of experiences. The exhibition had previously been on display in Brussels, Zurich, Vienna, and Marseilles, and is now on view in Hamburg for the first time.

At the heart of the exhibition is an oversized compass symbolically pointing out the way to the city of the future. Instead of the cardinal points, it indicates the overall goals to be achieved by the cities of tomorrow: Smart City, Open City, Civic City, and Growing City. They form the conceptual framework for the strategies and projects discussed and with which the HafenCity and the IBA Hamburg are approaching the opportunities of the future.

The exhibition is on display daily (except Mondays) from 21 June to 5 July in theON-OFF Gallery, Osakaallee 16, HafenCity.

Press contacts

HafenCity Hamburg GmbH
Head of Public Relations, Susanne Bühler
buehler@HafenCity.com, Tel.: 040 / 37 47 26-14

IBA Hamburg GmbH
Press Relations, Anna Vietinghoff
anna.vietinghoff@iba-hamburg.de Tel.: 040 / 226 227-331