The IBA Hamburg:

The Company

The IBA Hamburg is a full subsidiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. From 2006–2013, it was commissioned with the development, execution and implementation of the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg. Since 2014, the IBA Hamburg GmbH has acted as an urban development company, developing new districts in Hamburg.

With forward-looking planning and the early involvement of all essential stakeholders from politics, administration, business and society, and with the participation of citizens, the IBA Hamburg creates innovative and future-proof solutions for the city of tomorrow. High urban and design quality as well as economic efficiency are what distinguish the work of the IBA Hamburg GmbH.

The IBA Hamburg develops new, liveable and lively neighbourhoods across Hamburg, offering living space and workplaces for a broad mixture of society. Alongside varied residential offers for all living situations, good social infrastructure and mobility concepts allowing ease of communication within and without the district are part of this. By designing high-quality leafy and open spaces and attractive leisure offers, while also establishing central places of encounter within the district, the public space becomes an extension of the living room, a place where residents can meet. In doing so, the IBA Hamburg reacts to the present realities of each urban context. The strong points of each location are worked out and a particular topic with special characteristics developed for each new district: from the “ActiveCity” through “living close to nature on the periphery of the city” to “dense, urban districts in difficult locations”.

The work of the IBA Hamburg starts with the initial feasibility study and ends when stable neighbourhoods have formed. In the meantime, it takes on all project development tasks itself: initiating and controlling competitions, functional planning, supporting the acquisition of construction rights, development and design of public open spaces, marketing and quality controls. This work is accompanied by open and continuous communication and demand-related involvement of citizens and, later, of residents.

The geographical centre is Hamburg’s Elbe Island of Wilhelmsburg. The potential of the districts of the Wilhelmsburger Rathausviertel (Wilhelmsburg Town Hall District), Elbinselquartier (Elbe Island District) and Spreehafenviertel (Spreehafen District), all developed by the IBA Hamburg, is at more than 4,000 housing units. Through forward-looking planning, involving local stakeholders, in the next few years liveable districts will be created, offering housing as well as special leafy and open spaces, commerce and gastronomy, and social and educational institutions.

Further districts on the Elbe Islands include the Inselparkquartier (Inselpark District) and Georg-Wilhelm-Höfe (Georg-Wilhelm Courtyards). In the north-east of Wilhelmsburg is Georgswerder, which through its location and development structure of detached and townhouses has become a village in the city.

Already since 2013, the IBA Hamburg has been developing two new, family-friendly residential districts in the Vogelkamp Neugraben and Fischbeker Heidbrook, on the market since 2014 and now almost complete. In addition, the Fischbeker Reethen are to develop into a lively, urban and green district in which living close to nature and innovative working environments are possible side-by-side. The slogan of “Living close to nature” defines the character of the districts.

In the borough district of Bergedorf, at 118 hectares, the second-largest urban development project in Hamburg is currently to be found. Here, in Oberbillwerder, the IBA Hamburg is planning the 105^th district of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In February 2019, the master plan was adopted by the Hamburg Senate. The planning process begun in 2016.

At the start of 2018, the Hamburg Senate instituted a new development company, IBA Projektentwicklungs GmbH & Co.KG (IPEG) to carry out the realisation of Oberbillwerder.