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New Port Promenade
Hamburg, Germany

  • project New Port Promenade Hamburg
  • client LSBG ,Hamburg
  • architect Zaha Hadid Architects, London; Jan Hübener, Studio H2K, Hamburg
  • lighting designer Schlotfeldt Licht, Hamburg
  • photographer Martin Zitzlaff

The Port of Ham­burg has a new pro­me­nade in a pro­mi­nent loca­tion – the Inland Port/​Lower Port flood pro­tec­tion faci­lity bet­ween the lan­ding brid­ges in St. Pauli and the Old Ware­ho­use Dist­rict. The promenade’s dis­tinc­tive arc­hi­tec­ture stems from the London office of Zaha Hadid and is bro­ught to life at night by light from a tech­ni­cal solu­tion desig­ned by Sch­lot­feldt Licht using LED tech­no­logy by Selux.

The flo­od­wa­ter pro­tec­tion faci­li­ties in the Port of Ham­burg are gra­du­ally being rene­wed, cre­ating urban plan­ning oppor­tu­ni­ties in defi­ning loca­ti­ons for the urban lands­cape – like at the flo­od­wa­ter pro­tec­tion faci­lity for Hamburg’s Inland Port /​Lower Port. Here one of the Port of Hamburg‘s most impor­tant pro­me­na­des forms a con­nec­tion bet­ween the lan­ding brid­ges in St. Pauli and the his­to­ri­cal port buil­dings of the Old Ware­ho­use Dist­rict, which were recently inc­lu­ded on UNESCO‘s list of world heri­tage sites. The buil­ding sec­tion starts at Baum­wall“ in the direct vici­nity of the Elbe Phil­har­mo­nic Hall.

Ten­ders were invi­ted to meet spe­cial urban plan­ning requ­ire­ments and the award-win­ning design was sub­mit­ted by the London office of the reno­w­ned Zaha Hadid Arc­hi­tects. The ext­ra­or­di­nary arc­hi­tec­ture of the sta­ir­ca­ses shown in the design, each con­nec­ted to the pro­me­nade in var­ying dimen­si­ons, ensu­res a high-quality visi­tor expe­ri­ence and aest­he­tic appeal. To enable the ligh­ting effect and light mood to effec­ti­vely comp­li­ment such arc­hi­tec­tu­ral sop­his­ti­ca­tion, Sch­lot­feldt Licht pro­po­sed a ligh­ting solu­tion that was not based on stan­dard lumi­na­ires.

The light plan­ning for the flo­od­wa­ter pro­tec­tion faci­lity with its
pro­me­nade and sta­ir­ca­ses is cle­arly subor­di­na­ted to the strict­ness of the arc­hi­tec­ture. The sta­ir­ca­ses, whose appe­arance is ins­pi­red by wash-outs in the sand, are emp­ha­si­sed by direct light, while the upper pro­me­nade is lit using reser­ved light. In order to realise the ligh­ting con­cept, light plan­ners worked clo­sely with all invol­ved par­ties, the cus­to­mer LSBG, BSU, Vat­ten­fall (now Ham­burg Ver­kehr­san­la­gen) and Selux. The tech­ni­cal sup­port we rece­ived from Selux was a defi­ning factor in the suc­cess­ful comp­le­tion of this ext­ra­or­di­nary pro­ject,“ exp­la­ined Volker Auge­ner from LSBG.

Based on the spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons in the design by Sch­lot­feldt Licht, Selux deve­lo­ped a pro­ject-spe­ci­fic LED pole lumi­na­ire. Poles are moun­ted at inter­vals of bet­ween 18 and 40m at heights of 6.5 m or 8.5m, with each pole assig­ned to a sta­ir­case, to which it is tilted at an inc­line of around 15°. All poles for a single sta­ir­case system have a uni­form height and each pole bears six pivo­ting LED lumi­na­ire heads, three with bat­wing light dist­ri­bu­tion and three with flood optics, enab­ling vari­ous areas, shapes and dis­tan­ces to be illu­mi­na­ted dif­fe­rently. Each LED lumi­na­ire head is equ­ip­ped with its own, DALI-capable driver, enab­ling a wide vari­ety of light scenes to be prog­ram­med via the rele­vant cont­rol­ler.

The highly com­pact lumi­na­ire heads are reces­sed into dep­res­si­ons in the poles, which are tape­red orga­ni­cally towards the top end; their sur­face cor­res­pon­ding in colour with the dark ground below. The design lan­gu­age for the light poles is based on mari­time asso­ci­ati­ons such as ships‘ masts, cranes or the stalks of reeds.

The way in which the sta­ir­ca­ses inter­sect alter­na­tely in the pro­me­nade calls to mind small amp­hit­he­at­res. Uni­form illu­mi­na­tion would have resul­ted in a sta­dium effect, which we wanted to avoid in the inte­rest of cre­ating a high quality visi­tor expe­ri­ence,“ exp­la­ined Light Plan­ner Tom Sch­lot­feldt. For this reason the light poles were arran­ged so that they create both bright and darker zones. The pole lumi­na­ires have alre­ady been ins­tal­led in the first sec­tion Baum­wall” and the lumi­na­ire heads pro­vi­si­onally alig­ned.

The feed­back so far both from resi­dents of Ham­burg and tourists has been ove­r­w­hel­mingly posi­tive. With its seating areas, the pro­me­nade has been accep­ted as a key new visi­tor att­rac­tion, to an extent that (accor­ding to ini­tial esti­ma­ti­ons) is even beyond the scope of our expec­ta­ti­ons,“ reports Tom Sch­lot­feldt. This is doubt­less also due to the light mood and the high quality tech­ni­cal reali­sa­tion of the pro­ject, the result of which pro­ject par­ti­ci­pants are most cer­ta­inly highly satis­fied with.

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