Train Station Hamburg-Diebsteich

Competition - Hamburg, 2018

Intent and Urbanism:
This competition offers the unique opportunity to let a new long-distance train station have an impact on the Hamburg skyline beyond the Hamburg-Altona district and at the same time to optimize the urban space of the immediately neighboring quarter. This design turns the danger of a station hall, which is merely a covered space, into an entrance sign for the new station that can be seen from afar. The geometry of the urban environment alone requires a realignment of the two high-rise towers:
• The hotel tower is rotated and positioned parallel to the large Bahnstrasse.
• The office tower is organized as a square and placed mirror-symmetrically to the entrance axis.
• Both towers and the roof of the station concourse form a gesture of welcome that has an impact on the city thanks to their opposing facades.
• At the same time, the respective facades of the two towers face the arrivals from ALL THREE directions:
- Isebekstrasse,
- Waidmannstraße, and
- the Grosse Bahnstrasse.

Urban structure of the building block:
Both high-rise buildings will have a very similar façade structure so that the station sign is uniform. The memorable rotation of the two skyscrapers creates further decisive advantages:
• The view from both skyscrapers is unobstructed, and
• the lighting of the rooms in the high-rise buildings is significantly improved.
• The mirror-symmetrical rotation creates an entrance funnel with the height of a skyscraper:
- Receive and pass through with one big gesture!
The different orientations of the two “high-rise heads” face all cardinal points of the city – a “face” shows up everywhere. The classic tripartite division into "top floor zone / middle zone / base zone" is derived in the base of the building with clear lines from the directions of the streets and neighboring buildings.

usages:
• Both high-rise buildings are organized square in plan in order to achieve maximum space efficiency and optimal lighting.
• NO purely north or south orientation of the office areas!
• The offices follow an axis grid of 1.35 m

Material:
The facades of the two high-rise buildings and the base structures will have a similar-looking, elegant facade made of black aluminum profiles. Insulated opening vents behind expanded metal grilles can optionally be used for natural ventilation. A rail-guided glare shield can be used to mechanically divert the air in the space between the glare shield and the glass.