IBA Hamburg Takes a Bold Leap into 2013

It’s underway: on Saturday the inauguration of the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg will kick off with a grand public opening in Wilhelmsburg Central. At a joint press conference on 20 March 2013, the Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz  and IBA Director Uli Hellweg provided an overview of the big opening event on Saturday and the rich diversity of the Presentation Year. The Mayor will officially open the IBA at the lake beside the Community Centre at 6 p.m. on Saturday 23 March. All the new houses in Wilhelmsburg Central will then be open to the public for the very first time. Many of them will form the aesthetic backdrop for a live performance of UTOPIA by the artists’ group “Kommando Himmelfahrt”. On Sunday most of the other IBA projects in Wilhelmsburg, Veddel, and “Harburg Upriver Port” will be open to visitors between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Hamburg, 20 March 2013 – “Wilhelmsburg and the Elbe islands are showcasing themselves beyond the borders of Hamburg and Germany through the International Building Exhibition (IBA) and the international garden show (igs). Hundreds of thousands of visitors will come and form their own impressions of this area of Hamburg. Many of them are bound to revise their existing view of it after their visit”, said the Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, at the press conference on Wednesday. He went on to say: “The IBA represents a major opportunity for Hamburg’s Wilhelmsburg district – the largest inhabited river island in the world after Manhattan – to be recognised as an attractive, modern residential neighbourhood. Visitors will find that Wilhelmsburg is a place where people enjoy living, where their work and homes are located, and where they spend their leisure time.Here children can enjoy growing up and schools can prepare them for their future lives.”

At the IBA inaugural weekend on 23 and 24 March, visitors can look forward to a varied and extensive programme highlighting over 60 IBA projects. Residents of the Elbe islands and Hamburg, tourists and building professionals are invited to discover the extraordinary diversity in Wilhelmsburg, Veddel, and “Harburg Upriver Port”. IBA Director Uli Hellweg said: “Our aim in this opening weekend is to celebrate the beginning of this IBA Presentation Year. In spite of the weather, we are expecting many visitors from Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg, the region, other parts of Germany, and abroad.” He went on, “The IBA Hamburg is a hands-on IBA. It will trigger exciting and sometimes controversial debates, I’m sure – not just among experts but interested non-specialists who visit the IBA. Its complex approach, involving structural policy measures, projects, and model architects’ houses for the twenty-first century, locates it firmly within the great tradition of building exhibitions in Germany. As is the case with every IBA, however, the ultimate judgement will be pronounced only in a few years’ time, when it is obvious just how much this IBA has achieved, not only regarding specialist discourse at international level, but more importantly for the people living here on Hamburg’s Wilhelmsburg.”

The inaugural weekend gets going in the heart of Wilhelmsburg with the “River Opening Ceremony”, in what will be an emotional public welcome by the Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz. The artists’ group “Kommando Himmelfahrt” will then whisk guests off to UTOPIA, in a creative vision featuring optical, acoustic, and performance activities. The buildings in the IBA area, Wilhelmsburg Central, will be immersed in a unique atmosphere of sound, light, projected images, and theatre. “A diverse cultural programme has been created in UTOPIA that could hardly be more perfect for our IBA”, said IBA Director Hellweg. The journey through the diversity of IBA Hamburg will be completed on Sunday. Many of the projects in the area are opening their doors for the first time, providing insights into innovative, future-oriented approaches and solutions for tomorrow’s world. Sunday’s highlights include the official opening of the “Energy Hill” at 10 a.m. and the IBA launch event on Harburg’s Schloßinsel at 3 p.m.

The printed programme for 2013 was also presented at the press conference, and is now widely available in Hamburg. It provides an overview of events from the opening weekend until 3 November, listing all 800 or so guided tours, 40 specialist items, 22 public forums, and 12 exhibitions. The mainstay of the sightseeing programme is the IBA bus, with over 1300 guided bus tours during the 32 weeks of the IBA. Another brand new feature is the IBA Hamburg’s smartphone app, which will be available to download after the IBA opening. Visitors can use it to find out more about all the IBA projects in the Wilhelmsburg, Veddel, and “Harburg Upriver Port” area. It provides a summary of each project with a description of the buildings, and suggests six different tours for visitors to discover the IBA at their own pace.

The entire IBA Presentation Year, under the banner “Discover the IBA”, is studded with special highlights, which will be attended by many of the partners, artists, architects, and other participants who have been heavily involved. The British artist Anthony McCall, for instance, will realise a one-year light project with Hamburg Deichtorhallen and the Falckenberg Collection, which will begin on 22 March 2013. The project is an artistic and symbolic visualisation of the "Leap across the Elbe", using the beams from three searchlights to link three districts in Hamburg: Neustadt, Wilhelmsburg, and Hamburg-Harburg. The light from the three beams will form a ribbon uniting the north and south banks of Wilhelmsburg. Under the rubric “24 hours of IBA – 24 hours of Diversity” visitors will be offered a 24-hour programme twice during the year, once in May and once in September, giving them the opportunity to discover the IBA Hamburg in all its variety. Another highlight of the Presentation Year is the Hamburg Youth Climate Conference in June 2013. All the children and young people participating in the conference will round it off by handing over to politicians, at the top of the “Energy Hill”, the climate message they have worked out for Hamburg and the metropolitan area.  The IBA Architecture Day, in August, will be a unique opportunity for visitors to find out about the new IBA buildings in guided tours by the architects involved. Then in September and October the Presentation Year enters the last lap with the City-Art Circuit “TRANSPORT…OPEN PROMISES”.

Taking Stock and Looking Ahead

IBA Director Uli Hellweg: “After six years of IBA Hamburg, we can look back on an eventful period in which we were supported by many people. This alone has made it possible for us to show what we have achieved in the final IBA Presentation Year 2013.” He also looked ahead to the years following the IBA Hamburg GmbH and reflected on what the future held in store for the IBA project area after 2013. For the IBA projects, numbering over 60, are also meant to demonstrate Wilhelmsburg’s potential for the future – for sustainable development: “We worked to ensure that when the IBA is over, all the projects will continue to develop in an equally positive way. In addition, the level of private investment after 2013 should exceed one and a half billion, if the development potential created by the IBA can be exploited.” To which the Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, added: “Development potential for the next 10 to 15 years is emerging in the centre of Wilhelmsburg – including new, attractive apartments close to the centre. Wilhelmsburg has prospects, and they extend far beyond the district‘s boundaries.”

INFOBOX: Facts, figures, and dates relating to the Presentation Year

Presentation Year start and finishing dates: 23 March to 3November 2013

In all, around 800 guided tours during the Presentation Year 2013

IBA Hamburg mounting 12 exhibitions in the course of the Presentation Year

1127 bus tours with the IBA bus

40 meetings and conferences

540,000 visitors to date (to March 2013)

46 projects (including three-quarters of the 63 IBA projects) will be completed by the IBA Opening Weekend.

11 other projects will be finished by summer.

6 other projects are under construction and on schedule, because they had later start dates than the others.

71.5 hectares of green space and 100 hectares of igs

1217 apartments

Over € 1 billion investment (by 2013), over € 700 million of which is privat

For further details please contact:
IBA Hamburg GmbH, Rainer Müller, Head of Press Department, rainer.mueller@iba-hamburg.de, Tel.: 040 / 226 227 335, or Anna Vietinghoff, Press Department, anna.vietinghoff@iba-hamburg.de, Tel: 040 / 226 227 – 331 or presse@iba-hamburg.de