Affordable rents: In Hamburg, a multi-storey car park is to be turned into living space – economy

Cars out of the city, people in – these are the most important ingredients in the recipe for revitalizing inner cities. The people here should not only work, shop, eat and be entertained. They should also live in the center, and at moderate rents. But there is a lack of affordable living space, especially in city centers.

A new way of urban design and building use is therefore currently being embarked on in Hamburg. An aging urban parking garage on Neue Gröningerstraße, in the Katharinenquartier in the middle of Hamburg’s old town, is to be converted into inexpensive apartments and rooms for small businesses. A colorful mix should be created here, with a lot of culture, cafes, educational institutions and social spaces.

The multi-storey car park, built in 1963, showed massive damage, and as the need for inner-city parking spaces is falling, the city decided on a conversion and launched a concept tender. The Gröninger Hof cooperative, which was founded especially for the construction project, was awarded the contract for the parking garage and the property. The idea generator was the “Old Town for All!”

The initiative’s motto is now becoming a reality with the Gröninger Hof project. “We are throwing the first stone in the water for real change in the city center. We want to show that urban quality of life is possible in the middle of the city,” says Tina Unruh, chairman of the cooperative’s supervisory board.

How do you get air and light into the old parking garage?

The cooperative currently has 200 members, but the number is set to increase. “We look forward to more people who want to participate in a piece of urban development,” says Unruh. The threshold for this is low: with five shares of 200 euros each, you can participate. A right of residence is not yet associated with this. Members who want to live here purchase additional shares depending on the size of their apartment. When choosing residents, a variety of factors are taken into account, such as income or how many people belong to the household.

Hamburg’s new land policy not only provides for significantly more heritable building rights to be granted, but also for more concept tenders that dampen property prices. The aim is to achieve affordable rents in the long term and leeway for strategic urban development.

According to the current plan, the construction will cost around 28 million euros. Six architecture firms took part in the competition launched by the cooperative. The German-Swiss architecture firm Duplex Architekten finally won the unanimous bid. One of the biggest challenges for the project is “to bring light and air into the building”, says Christof Weber, managing director of the Hamburg office. The property is enclosed on three sides and lies between two busy streets.

“We want a mixture of different social classes.”

In order to bring light into the former parking garage, the building has an atrium on the inside, which opens in stages from the ground floor to the upper floors. The terraces should be planted with small trees. “This creates a lively green space that develops from the inside of the building as a carefully designed terrace landscape,” explains Weber.

“The building should be allowed to see its original use, the entrance and exit ramps should be preserved in parts, but in the future instead of cars, children will drive around in bobby cars,” says the architect. The base, the main entrance to the multi-storey car park and some of the upper floors are also to be partially retained and supplemented by a multi-storey increase in timber construction.

A flexible office landscape with lecture and film rooms is planned on the first floor, which can be used by residents as well as externally. 78 apartments are to be built on the upper levels, they will be 30 to 110 square meters in size and have one to six rooms. This also includes units for those primarily looking for accommodation such as people with disabilities, students with children or supervised young people. “We want a mixture of different social classes, a house with a well thought-out design for many instead of expensive living space for a few,” says Unruh. Tenants with low incomes receive subsidies and sometimes pay less than seven euros, economically strong households pay up to 16 euros per square meter.

Upstairs there is a roof terrace with a playground and views over the city

In addition to residential use and office space, catering and small businesses are also planned. They make up around 20 percent of the total area and also include, for example, a concierge box where people with disabilities work. Here small services and errands for the house and the neighborhood are offered and tickets for the cultural institutions are sold. Another special innovation is the approximately 15 percent hybrid space that is used jointly, including a laundrette for the community, a guest apartment, a meeting room or a workshop. Many rooms should be used flexibly and multiple times, for example as an office during the day and for open courses in the evening.

The “coronation” of the Gröninger Hof is the roof terrace with a green garden. At a height of 22 meters, an area is created with a wide view of the city for everyone. There should be a playground for children, areas for gardening, a small pavilion with a common room, kitchen and tool shed and maybe even a sauna and fitness equipment.

In the basement of the former seven-story car park, 22 of the former 550 parking spaces will be retained. Areas for car sharing, a charging station for electromobility and plenty of space for bicycles are planned here.

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