Redesign of Veddel market square and Spreehafen waterfront

The urban planning practice West8 from Rotterdam has been successful in the “Dyke Park: the Main Klütjenfelder Dyke and the North Veddel Dyke” design contest with its plans for northern Veddel. The winning proposals for the Main Klütjenfelder Dyke on the northern periphery of Wilhelmsburg came from Studio Urbane Landschaften. The competition was held by the authority responsible for flood protection, the State Department of Roads, Bridges, and Water (LSBG) and the Internationale Bauausstellung IBA (International Building Exhibition) Hamburg for the purposes of raising both dykes in height by around one metre, scheduled for 2016. The participants were required to develop flood protection proposals that also offered urban design potential. 

New usages can be developed in the north of Veddel in the former customs area which are better able to protect from traffic noise the existing residential blocks, including the Fritz Schumacher buildings dating from the 1920s. The urban design firms were also required to put forward proposals for improved links between the residential southern part of Veddel, the green waterfront, and the adjoining neighbourhoods,

Ideas also needed to be developed for a second planning area in the north of Wilhelmsburg, namely the Main Klütjenfelder Dyke and the areas to its south, between the busy Harburger Chaussee and the Ernst-August-Kanal. The harbour basin has seen an increase in public traffic with the IBA project “Opening the Spreehafen”. Cyclists ride along the waterfront and pedestrians linger on the broad dyke steps. This makes it all the more important that leisure and recreation quality are taken into consideration from the outset with the pending heightening of the dykes.

Hamburg, 4 July 2013 – “The winning design by West8 was able to score points with its concept for the redesign of Veddel. It provides for the revival of the historic Veddel market square. Veddel is set to gain in importance with the redesign and the direct link to the future HafenCity underground station. The new urban design allows for residential and commercial premises, and cleverly integrates many of the existing buildings, creating new leisure appeal. The familiar Veddel fried fish stand is to remain and the Veddel marketplace, no more than a name up until now, is again to become a vibrant urban square. Its location, directly opposite HafenCity, can thus become an important milestone for the ‘Leap across the Elbe’”, said IBA Managing Director Uli Hellweg regarding the jury’s decision.

Veddel is currently isolated and segregated from the Hamburg city structure. It is today a place compromised by car, rail, and shipping traffic causing high noise levels. As with the Spreehafen, here too the awaited increase in height of the dykes provides opportunities for urban design improvements.

Jochen Hinz, LSBG Managing Director, says: “One of the attractions of the Studio Urbane Landschaften design selected for the Spreehafen is the longest bench in Hamburg at two kilometres. Their clever arrangement provides for the necessary dyke heightening without additional space requirements and creates greater leisure value in the environs of the dyke.

In its further plans for adapting the dykes to the newly assessed water levels, the LSBG intends to consult the winning urban design practices and to take on as many suggestions as possible for the design of flood protection measures.”

The competition’s winning entries are now available for viewing in an exhibition at the IBA DOCK, the IBA visitors’ centre on Veddel. 

You will find the full competition documentation at:

www.iba-hamburg.de/planverfahren-deichpark

Please address any queries to:

IBA Hamburg GmbH, Rainer Müller, Head of Press Relations, rainer.mueller@iba-hamburg.de,

Tel.: 040 / 226 227 335, or Anna Vietinghoff, Press Relations,

anna.vietinghoff@iba-hamburg.de, Tel: 040 / 226 227 – 331 or presse@iba-hamburg.de