Georgswerder:

A village in the city

The district of Georgswerder is characterised by its particular location on the Elbe Island: encircled by busy transport axes, the federal motorways A252 and A255 and the long-distance rail route, Georgswerder is in the heart of nature in this watery landscape and at the same time centrally positioned. By bus (line 154) and suburban railway (S3 / S31) you can reach Hamburg central station in only 13 minutes. In addition, the Hamburg-Süd motorway junction offers a convenient transport connection.

Georgswerder’s urban character is defined by the multi-storey flats along the Niedergeorgswerder Deich, the numerous detached houses and large allotment areas. The Elbinselschule school and Deichpiraten kindergarten are already present here.

Alongside the area of the future Kirchenwiese residential district at around 7.6 hectares, Georgswerder has the commercial area of Fiskalische Straße at around 4 hectares, which is also being developed by the IBA Hamburg.

The new Kirchenwiese residential district runs from Rahmwerder Straße in the north to the Buschweide in the south. In terms of construction, in the new Kirchenwiese residential district 190 housing units are to be built, 100 of them multi-storey flats, 50 of them townhouses and the rest detached and semi-detached houses. One peculiarity of the open space planning are the so-called landscape fingers, uniting several advantages: on the one hand, they provide drainage close to the surface by diverting and retaining water, while also fulfilling an important ecological function and serving as places to meet and play. A newly designed main square on the corner of Niedergeorgswerder Straße / Rahmwerder Straße will create a central place of encounter for the neighbourhood, while at the same time redefining the entrance to the Elbinselschule.

The new commercial area south of Fiskalische Straße will see the relocation of a company that shows consideration for the neighbouring residential development. With a style of architecture and design appropriate to the location, the entrance to the district should be impressively redesigned.

In 2014, three architectural and urban development teams were invited by the IBA Hamburg to develop proposals for the planning areas of Kirchenwiese and Fiskalische Straße as part of the expert assessment procedure “Living and Working in Georgswerder”. Three public events formed part of this process, in which interested citizens were able to discuss the designs by the participating planning teams and engage with particular aspects of the district. One topic was, for example, a new district centre, for which the planning teams were also to develop urban development ideas. As per the “Picture of the future in Georgswerder”, new housing-compatible businesses were to be relocated to Fiskalische Straße. In the Kirchenwiese planning area, on the other hand, the potential for detached houses, semi-detached houses, townhouses and multi-storey flats along Niedergeorgswerder Deich and Rahmwerder Straße was to be implemented.

As a result of the expert assessment procedure, the first position for the two subsections of the Fiskalische Straße triangle and the local square was awarded to raumwerk Architekten from Frankfurt am Main. For the third subsection, Kirchenwiese, the first position went to the design by LRW Architekten from Hamburg.