Kreativ Gesellschaft honoured with award at the German Urban Development Award 2025

Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft has been honoured for its JUPITER project with an award in the Special Prize category of the German Urban Development Award 2025. This makes the temporary creative department stores' in Hamburg's city centre one of Germany's best examples of innovative urban development in the sense of a "culture of conversion in the circular city" - this year's focus of the special prize.

As a project of the urban development programme Frei_Fläche, JUPITER impressively demonstrated the potential of creative interim use for the development of sustainable inner cities. The award particularly recognises the successful conversion of the vacant department stores' in Hamburg's Mönckebergstraße into an open and lively place for culture, innovation and encounters.

Jana Schiedek, State Councillor for Culture and Media Hamburg: "The Kreativplanet JUPITER in the heart of Hamburg's city centre has impressively demonstrated the central role that culture and the creative industries can play in the development of urban centres. The project met the current challenges facing city centres with open spaces for art, encounters and exchange. The prize for JUPITER is well deserved, and I warmly congratulate the dedicated team at Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft on this honour."

Egbert Rühl, Managing Director of Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft: "First and foremost, the employees of Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft have earned the award in the Special Prize category of the German Urban Development Award 2025 for their sensational work. The fact that the Kreativ Gesellschaft plays an excellent role in urban development as an absolute lateral entrant once again shows the scope and quality of its work, but also the effects of the creative industries that extend far beyond its core business."

A total of 24 projects applied for the special prize, five of which were nominated for the award ceremony on 25 July at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Three received a commendation, one project was honoured with the special prize - and the JUPITER project received one of the jury's outstanding awards.

Creative hotspot instead of vacancy
The creative department stores' JUPITER was located in the heart of Hamburg's city centre - directly on Mönckebergstraße, opposite large electronics retailers and in the immediate vicinity of the main railway station. The former department stores' offers around 8,000 m² of space on six floors and has a striking roof terrace. From 2021 to April 2025, the building was used as a cultural and creative interim venue: with exhibitions, pop-ups, concerts, educational programmes, gastronomy and design and fashion offerings. The space was in a constant state of flux - open, dynamic and easily accessible. JUPITER became a popular meeting place for a wide audience and gave the city centre new impetus.

The special prize of the German Urban Development Award is already the second national award for the JUPITER project. Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft received the polis Award in the "Reactivated Centres" category in April 2024.

Frei_Fläche: An urban programme to combat vacancy
The JUPITER creative department stores' was the largest of a total of 91 spaces that were put to creative interim use as part of Hamburg's Frei_Fläche funding programme. The programme was launched in 2021 in response to the coronavirus pandemic and ran until the end of June 2025 with the aim of preventing vacancies, giving creative people space and making city centres more diverse and vibrant.

In three years, Frei_Fläche activated over 28,000 m² of vacant space in the city - including prominent locations such as Neuer Wall, Colonnaden and Baakenhafen, as well as arcades and shopping centres (e.g. Hanseviertel, Hamburger Hof, Springerquartier) and neighbourhood centres outside the city centre, such as in Osterstraße in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel.

A total of 128 creative interim utilisations were made possible. The creatives received the space at a price of 1.50 euros per square metre per month. No rent was paid; the programme only covered the vacancy costs incurred. Budget funds from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg are available to implement the programme. The programme was implemented in cooperation with the Landesbetrieb für Immobilienmanagement und Grundvermögen (LIG), the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg.

About the German Urban Development Award

For 45 years, the German Urban Development Award, which is endowed with 25,000 euros, has honoured projects that shape urban development in an innovative, sustainable and high-quality manner. It is awarded by the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning (DASL), sponsored by the Wüstenrot Foundation. The special prize highlights particularly topical issues and challenges - in 2025, the focus was on the question of what a "culture of conversion" in the circular city can look like in concrete terms.

All award-winning projects at: www.staedtebaupreis.de

About the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft

Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft is the city's economic development agency for Hamburg's creative industries. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, it is part of the Ministry of Culture and Media and has been the direct contact and service centre for all players and companies in the creative industries in the Hanseatic city since 2010. In the areas of consulting and training, real estate and urban development, funding and financing as well as networking, it implements innovative and customised formats and offers on topics relevant to the creative industries. With the Cross Innovation Hub, Kreativ Gesellschaft has been a pioneer in promoting the linking of the cultural and creative industries with traditional economic sectors since 2015 in order to develop innovative solutions for social and economic challenges. With the Design Zentrum Hamburg, Gamecity Hamburg and nextMedia.Hamburg, it also has three location initiatives that each focus on specific submarkets.

One of its core tasks is to improve the framework conditions for the creative industries and to act as an interface - between the various areas of the creative industries, but also with other stakeholders from business, politics and society.

Creative hotspot instead of vacancy

The creative department stores' JUPITER was located in the heart of Hamburg's city centre - directly on Mönckebergstraße, opposite large electronics retailers and in the immediate vicinity of the main railway station. The former department stores' offers around 8,000 m² of space on six floors and has a striking roof terrace. From 2021 to April 2025, the building was used as a cultural and creative interim venue: with exhibitions, pop-ups, concerts, educational programmes, gastronomy and design and fashion offerings. The space was in a constant state of flux - open, dynamic and easily accessible. JUPITER became a popular meeting place for a wide audience and gave the city centre new impetus.

The special prize of the German Urban Development Award is already the second national award for the JUPITER project. Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft received the polis Award in the "Reactivated Centres" category in April 2024.

An urban programme against vacancies

The JUPITER creative department stores' was the largest of a total of 91 spaces that were put to creative interim use as part of Hamburg's Frei_Fläche creative space funding programme. The programme was launched in 2021 in response to the coronavirus pandemic and ran until the end of June 2025 with the aim of preventing vacancies, giving creative people space and making city centres more diverse and vibrant.

In three years, Frei_Fläche activated over 28,000 m² of vacant space in the city - including prominent locations such as Neuer Wall, Colonnaden and Baakenhafen, as well as arcades and shopping centres (e.g. Hanseviertel, Hamburger Hof, Springerquartier) and neighbourhood centres outside the city centre, such as in Osterstraße in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel.

A total of 128 creative interim utilisations were made possible. The creatives received the space at a price of 1.50 euros per square metre per month. No rent was paid; the programme only covered the vacancy costs incurred. Budget funds from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg are available to implement the programme. The programme was implemented in cooperation with the Landesbetrieb für Immobilienmanagement und Grundvermögen (LIG), the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg.

About the German Urban Development Award

For 45 years, the German Urban Development Award, which is endowed with 25,000 euros, has honoured projects that shape urban development in an innovative, sustainable and high-quality manner. It is awarded by the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning (DASL), sponsored by the Wüstenrot Foundation. The special prize highlights particularly topical issues and challenges - in 2025, the focus was on the question of what a "culture of conversion" in the circular city can look like in concrete terms.

All award-winning projects at: www.staedtebaupreis.de