Initiatives of theHamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft
Germany's major cities are looking for ideas to combat vacancy. Creative interim uses are an important tool - says Tina Unruh, architect and managing director of the Hamburg Baukultur Foundation. A tour of "Jupiter", Germany's largest model project.
Tina Unruh remembers the roller skating rink on the roof of Jupiter from her youth. Back then, the department stores' on Hamburg's Mönckebergstraße shopping street was still called "Karstadt Sports". After its closure in October 2020, the building stood empty for almost two years - only to reopen as Germany's largest creative interim use. Since summer 2022, people have been shopping for sustainable fashion, looking at art, doing yoga after work or dancing on Sundays at Jupiter.
The project, which is funded by the City of Hamburg, is a reaction to the development of the city centre. In March 2023, retail sales on Mönckebergstrasse were still around five per cent lower than before the pandemic. Just out of sight of the roof terrace, an 80,000 square metre mega shopping centre is being built in HafenCity, which will attract more shoppers from the city centre - and thus further increase the pressure on retailers. The use of office space in the city centre is also declining. While the vacancy rate was at a low of 400,000 square metres in 2019, it will be 561,000 again in 2022.
More vacancies mean less activity - a gloomy perspective that Tina Unruh contrasts with a colourful vision of the future. In addition to her profession as an architect, she is also Managing Director of the Hamburg Foundation for Building Culture (HSBK) and Deputy Managing Director of the Hamburg Chamber of Architects. With this knowledge, she enthuses about small measures - making car park levels available for bicycles - and big visions for the future. "We need vibrant neighbourhoods in Hamburg's city centre with various infrastructures that make life possible around the clock."
"The mono-function makes the transformation more difficult because other uses and impulses must first be painstakingly sought and established"
In Cologne, for example, many people live in the city centre. "People don't live in Hamburg's city centre. Here we have large streets where either retail or office use has taken place. The monofunction makes the transformation more difficult because other uses and impulses have to be sought and established first." In fact, fewer than 2,500 people live in the old town today, and there are only around 100 between the main railway station and the town hall. However, city centres with lively streets are worth living in, even outside of shop opening hours, says Unruh.
When office workers call it a day and retailers close, the lights are often still on in Jupiter. The team from the public fund Hanseatische Materialverwaltung has transformed the fifth floor into a cosy bar with upholstered furniture and accessories. Only the escalator still exudes a bit of department stores' flair here. On the next four floors, galleries, collectives and knowledge brokers unleash their creativity, using modular partitions, temporary seating and imaginative fixtures to redesign the 8,000 square metres of former retail space. As part of the Frei_Fläche programme, Jupiter is one of 109 temporary uses in Hamburg. These include studios and workshops, shops and galleries, workspaces and event rooms. A total of around 25,100 square metres where creative people work.
"We can't just create any old spaces. Strong spaces - and then it almost doesn't matter what they were made for - can be repurposed because they have a certain atmosphere, because they have character"
The rooms don't always make it easy for the new users, as Unruh, who herself realised the "Month of Building Culture" in Jupiter with the HSBK, knows. She is familiar with 16-hour days, vitamin D deficiency in artificial light and a lack of contact with the outside world. "The department stores' as a temple of consumption should tempt you to forget time and space and devote yourself entirely to the products." Hence the closed floor plan, the meandering aisles. "The fact that you get so lost here is a deliberate feature of this architecture. Nevertheless, you can see that even this building can be converted."
But how should buildings be constructed in the future in order to give greater consideration to the conversion of new buildings? "There are structures that are particularly easy to repurpose because they are modular or have a certain room height. I can't run cables or install floors in buildings that are too low. Then it's worth thinking about separation from the outset: I shouldn't merge structures that have existed for several decades with technology that I want to replace after a while." But even more important, according to the architect, are strong spaces. "We can't just create any old spaces. Strong spaces - and then it almost doesn't matter what they were designed for - can be repurposed because they have a certain atmosphere, because they have character." Unruh is certain: "Function is something that comes and goes. The important thing is the well-proportioned space.
On level 4, we meet two elderly ladies who shyly open the doors - to ask what is actually for sale here. It seems unusual that consumption is not compulsory in Jupiter from the first to the fourth floor. There is also no admission charge for browsing. However, Unruh trusts that "in future, we will find it more common to move around in spaces that are not just designed for a single function."
"Here we can negotiate on a small scale what is happening outside on a large scale, in entire streets and neighbourhoods"
One floor below, Franziska Jakubik from the artists' collective Kanal 3 shares her impressions: "We already meet a diverse audience here, but they don't always come to Jupiter just for an exhibition, they're also interested in a party. Or have been shopping for clothes next door. During the week, it's mainly tourists and schoolchildren who like to spend their free time here." With the accessibility of a department store and the offer of an art centre, Jupiter creates a space for exchange and brings people together who otherwise rarely meet in everyday life.
One last time, the steady movement of the escalator transports Tina Unruh to another level: the ground floor. Here, visitors can watch the hustle and bustle on the street while enjoying a coffee from the Röstlich Brothers and curious onlookers can watch fashion designer Paul Kadjo create new outfits from outside. Nice to have? No, the open view of the ground floor is essential, emphasises Unruh, who spent her childhood and youth in Hamburg and later lived in Naples, Zurich and New York. "I would like to see a ban on masking ground floor windows in all cities, regardless of whether there is life behind them or not. Because the city we all travel to Italy for, the reason why we love Barcelona and New York, is the lively city. And whether a city feels lively is decided on the ground floor areas." There is plenty to see at Jupiter with the ground-floor ISS, the International Shopping Space.
"I would like to see a ban on masking ground-floor windows in all cities, regardless of whether it's busy behind them or not."
"I would like to see a ban on masking ground floor windows for all cities, regardless of whether it is lively behind them or not. Because the city we all travel to Italy for, the reason why we love Barcelona and New York, is the lively city. And whether a city feels lively is decided on the ground floor areas." There is plenty to see at Jupiter with the ground-floor ISS, the International Shopping Space.
Life beyond opening hours, free cultural events, creative space, freedom to consume, dialogue and transparency towards the street: these are just some of the impulses that projects like Jupiter provide. "Here we can negotiate on a small scale what is happening outside on a large scale, in entire streets and neighbourhoods," says Unruh, emphasising the relevance of temporary use. Her gaze wanders over browsing customers, coffee-sipping friends and art lovers who curiously make their way to the upper floors - and leads her to a final thought: what if the interim use were to become a conversion?
