"We are here to stay" HYBRID HOUSING in HAMBURG | Ctrl+space competition FIRST PRIZE AWARD
Ctrl+Space hosted this Ideas Competition with the aim of identifying the best proposal of a Mixed-use building located in Hamburg, Germany.
This Competition departed from the premise that a mixed-use building could provide answers to the issues of densification of the urban centre with use of the Residential function, deeply entwined with public presence and activities.
FROM THE JURY:
"This proposal was commended by the Jury as a true embodiment of the spirit of the location of St. Pauli, a struggling, rebellious, unconventional neighborhood.
Being clearly an architectural response to all recent history of the location and the city, the different elements that constitute the whole complex are reactive of the urban surroundings, whether in scale or configuration. The hybridity of the building comes from all the bridges established with the city fabric, either concrete or metaphorical; the building is open and accessible to the generality of public in all its public spaces. Structure takes here an important presence, the exoskeleton enforces the unfinished quality of the space, apart from introducing a strong graphical appeal.
Harnessing the qualities of its environment and gathering the essential ingredients of the city, this project constitutes a city within the city, permeable to the outside, providing a framework to urban activities, placemaking as a process and a underlining philosophy".
The project is the construction of a system of spaces and places ( mainly residential ) to serve the district st. Pauli , of his people.
The block is made so complex , articulated , never predictable.
every place is created to be used, lived and achieved by the people living in this isolated and the entire neighborhood. Private functions are mixed with public activities, interwoven into places and paths that lead to repeated social lives.
This place is open to the city,
is a place for the city
and for the citizens .
The principle of VARIETY at the center of his composition:
variety of routes, variety of places, variety of functions, variety of visual, variety of materials, variety of windows, variety of forms.
The volumetric composition of the block provides for a fragmentation of the same into smaller volumes, to form a mosaic of buildings in height and depth adjustable; the urban image , in the heights and the overall size is maintained in respect of the alignments of the historic fabric, but at the same time is introduced and promoted the principle of variety: the fragmentation of the block in individual buildings flanked breaks the monotony and the heaviness of a block too large and trivial.