Hamburg - On the Road

Hamburg was chosen to kick off the On the Road series, inspired by great public interest in learning in depth about cities and places where and effective urban development policy have focused on social and environmental renewal to express the value and image of new contemporary worlds. We could borrow the Expo 2010 Shanghai's slogan, "Better City Better Life" to describe the selection and meaning of our publishing approach for creating tools to facilitate direct experiences of these places. Hamburg is an interesting case study, as it demonstrates a strategic opportunity for change that can serve as an example for many European cities grappling with the changes brought with the shift from heavy industry to green economy. Since 2011, when the European Commission named Hamburg a European Green Capital, it has become a model for the urban regeneration, architectural restoration of abandoned buildings and areas, developing urban green spaces, and sustainable mobility. "Come discover the IBA. You are welcome here". This was the invitation made until November 3, 2013, the end of the period for presenting the project "IBA Hamburg". The city proudly presented its strategies for change, knowing it had created projects and initiatives that would amaze the world and attract tourists interested in both its history and in discovering possible future way of living. By visiting Hamburg, we can see how city's typical development, with its suburbs expanding until they had swallowed neighboring towns, had created decay in social and economic conditions, as is the case in most European cities. This turned city dwellers into a mass of commuters going constantly back and forth. The local administration's inspired idea to reverse this process shifted the market's interest to the city's inner areas, which were in a state of abandonment due to de-industrialization. Two testing grounds, HafenCity followed by IBA's "new city", show how Hamburg has succeded in reinventing itself and rediscovering the charm of its inner and outer areas; they are also bastions of sustainable living. The involvement of many leading contemporary architects and the process having worked through idea competitions to choose which ideas to adopt made an excellent contribution to Hamburg's real, visible renewal.