Elbphilhamonie

In 2007 building started on the Elbphilharmonie, a brand new concert hall for the Hamburg Philharmonic orchestra built in the Speicherstadt (warehouse area) on the River Elbe. It is still inching toward completion, with cranes atop and cloth swathing the brickwork of the lower stories.

It looks different from each side.  Viewed from a ferry on the Elbe, the building looks like a giant sailing ship. The brick warehouse buildings are a nice counterpoint to the glass sailing ship. 

Elbphilharmonie

Hamburg harbour has undergone a transformation in recent years as the old warehouses are rennovated. The most spectacular building of all is the new Elbphilharmonie which is being built on top of a warehouse that used to store cocoa. From the harbour it looks like as huge ship coming towards you along the river Elbe .

When you get closer you can see the wave shaped roof (middle section is still to be built).

The windows are all indivudually formed and glisten in the sun. It is spectacular and complements the other buildings in the harbour perfectly. The building was started in 2007 and when I saw it in 2009 when it was still just cranes on the horizon. There has been a recent hitch when it was discovered the hooks enabling window cleaners  to clean all those windows were left out. A bit like the Sydney Opera House, costs keep on inflating.

Conducting the cranes.

This is one of two etchings I made after visiting the Hafenstadt and seeing all the cranes working on the Elbphilharmonie. Shortly before I had been to the opera with Simone Young conducting.

Both etchings are on my website.

Black box

A lot of new apartments have been built in Hamburg's new district, the Hafenstadt (=Harbour City). It is a bit like Pyrmont in Sydney. Apartment dwellers will be able to walk to the new Philharmonie which is being built nearby. The 'black box' building with information about the Philharmonie(previous post) is quite ingenious. Outside there are a series of tubes jutting from the walls.

 

(Note the bike too ... it is the bike I bought off eBay.)
If you look down the tubes you see films of concerts.

 

Some of the tubes don't have picture in them, but instead sounds. There is piano ... or trumpet ... or violin.

The new Elbphilharmonie

The Speicherstadt on the Elbe River in Hamburg is the part of the city where traders used to store their wares.

 

The Speicherstadt is now called the Hafenstadt and still has traders but it is mostly office building and apartments.

 

This is where the new 'Elbphilharmonie' is being built. There is a little square building with information about the Elbphilharmonie near the building site.

 

You expect expect to find lots of posters and information inside, but instead when you go in you find there is just a staircase (and someone minding it). So up the staircase you go.

 

 

As you put your head through the opening you suddenly realise what it is all about. There surrounding you is the seating layout of the new building, complete with little figures. You suddenly feel as if you are in the new Elbphilharmonie.

 

Then you see a building worker outside the window ... life sized.