The KPTN building ensemble in HafenCity is designed as a socially and functionally mixed, compact urban building block. The small quarter consisting of a total of five buildings unites around a dozen uses under one roof. The cinema, harbor stage, restaurants and bars are attractions, especially in the evening. Together with a hotel, long-stay apartments, stores and a public underground parking garage, they ensure a changing clientele. At the same time, it is home to a colorful mix of residents in 220 subsidized and privately financed rental apartments - from micro-apartments to family-friendly 4-room apartments. The roof areas with playgrounds and gazebos as well as a green inner courtyard offer places to retreat and socialize. A public passageway crosses the quarter and creates a piazza in the middle with spacious outdoor seating areas and restaurants.

From the outside, the ensemble presents itself as a unit with a clear cubature. The façade of the hotel-cinema complex designed by architects Nalbach & Nalbach picks up on brick expressionism with its protruding and receding bricks. The exterior façades of the residential and commercial part designed by the architects blrm are based on a clear symmetrical grid, reminiscent of the Speicherstadt, in which floor-to-ceiling window elements are arranged.

48,700 m² of gross floor space can be accommodated on the 6,400 m² site, spread over seven to eight above-ground and two underground storeys. As the building ensemble is located on the site of a filled harbor basin and up to 2.50 m below the storm surge protection design level, special precautions were necessary. The hotel-cinema complex, for example, is equipped with a flood protection balcony that runs around the building as a defining element. Hotel rooms are located above the cinema. So that their users can enjoy a peaceful night's sleep, the cinema rooms, which are designed for rock concert volumes (up to 110 dB), were built as a complex acoustically decoupled room-in-room construction. In the micro-apartments facing the street, specially developed windows with floor-to-ceiling, soundproof glazed opening elements allow fresh air to enter without impairing the soundproofing effect.

The implementation planning for the building ensemble was also carried out by blrm Architects. Modular room concepts, sustainable and resource-saving materials and high energy efficiency characterize the new building, which is certified with the HafenCity Gold eco-label.

www.blrm.eu

Photos:

Marcus Bredt
www.marcusbredt.de

(Published in CUBE Hamburg 01|20)