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. 

Speicherstadt Tango

Speicherstadt Tango card by elizabethgw

Speicherstadt Warehouse (image from Wikipedia)

I will be in Hamburg in September and I am looking through my sketches to find some to hang in the coffee shop to replace the ones that have hung there for two years. I found this etching of the Speicherstadt.  The Hamburg Speicherstadt is the area encompassing the old warehouses on the harbour. I spent time bicycling around the Speicherstadt in 2009 when I spent 9 months in Germany at Hamburg Art School.

While I was there, the high school where a friend taught had a teacher's gathering and they all danced Tango. They inspired this etching of tango dancers at the Speicherstadt. 

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.