Hamburger Burg HH-Eimsbüttel

The ar­chi­tects at the Trutz, von Stuck­rad, Penner prac­tice have re­de­vel­oped a prime spec­i­men of early-20th-cen­tury reform ar­chi­tec­ture in Ham­burg-Eimsbüttel and in the process added two extra storeys. They have created a new time stratum with their roof­s­cape that, while readily visible, does not jar. As­tutely po­si­tioned raised sec­tions and pro­ject­ing loggias serve the struc­ture and its urban sur­round­ings as points of focus in dis­course with the period façade. The struc­tur­ing and rhythm of the orig­i­nal ar­chi­tec­ture are carried through into the new roof in this way.

The mul­ti­ple block of flats on the corner of Meth­fes­sel­strasse and Lut­teroth­strasse in the Hamburg borough of Eimsbüttel com­prises a total of eight build­ings. These were erected in 1908 as a project run by the “Pro­duc­tion” con­sumers’ co-op­er­a­tive. The en­sem­ble, which orig­i­nally pro­vided space for a hundred rental units and several shops, was heavily damaged during the war and rebuilt to a reduced scale that saw its flam­boy­ant roof truss sac­ri­ficed. The struc­ture was ac­corded listed status fitted with a makeshift roof in the 1950s.

The estate was an early example of the horse­shoe-shaped arrange­ment of build­ings dubbed the “Ham­burger Burg” style. These were U-shaped res­i­den­tial en­ti­ties with verdant court­yards that opened out onto the street; the flats were well-ven­ti­lated with plenty of in­ci­dent day­light as a result and high­lighted the poor quality of much of the ac­com­mo­da­tion being built at the time. The first Ham­burger Burg block built in 1899 on the corner of Meth­fes­sel­strasse and Stellinger Weg won a silver medal at the Paris World Ex­hi­bi­tion of 1900.

Ver­ti­cal den­si­fi­ca­tion has enabled twenty-three new rental units to be in­cor­po­rated into the build­ings. The many roof ter­races created have given rise to a new roof­s­cape with new neigh­bour­hoods “above the city’s roofs,” in the words the ar­chi­tects use to de­scribe their com­pelling scheme. The in­te­rior spaces receive natural light through con­i­cally-shaped dormer windows and open­ings at both sides of the re­cessed ter­races. The ar­chi­tects drew in­spi­ra­tion from the profile of the former roof truss when pro­duc­ing their blue­print.

The her­itage slate roofing has mutated into black shin­gles in prepati­nated ti­ta­nium zinc in the new design. The cus­tomised shade of green used for the timber windows and the terrace doors was like­wise ex­trap­o­lated from the colour scheme for the orig­i­nal build­ings. Wholly in the spirit of rec­on­cil­ing a variety of time strata, cor­ri­dor areas and stair­cases have been ac­corded a colour scheme redo­lent of the postwar period. The spaces inside the roof ex­ten­sion feature top-qual­ity ap­point­ments such as oiled her­ring­bone parquet floor­ing, bright walls and matt HPL-coated doors.

Splashes of ac­cen­tu­at­ing colour are gen­er­ated by the green of the windows and black of the door and window fit­tings. The ar­chi­tects opted for FSB 1005 handles citing the styl­is­tic traces from the 1950s that have been re­tained. The black an­odised finish chosen for these fit­tings places them on an even visual footing with all the other metal sur­faces in the new-build section, which have sim­i­larly been ren­dered in black.