Archives for “Art & culture” tag

The IBA Dock is a great Infospot for the future development of the City of Hamburg. The IBA 2013 (International Building Exhibition) and the IGS 2013 (International Garden Show) are now taking place on the Elbe Islands (Veddel and Wilhelmsburg) and are definitely some highlights for this summer in Hamburg.

The IBA Dock built of floating containers is a little attraction. It was originally based on the idea to build a floating youth hostel for tourists but for some reason never has been realized… unfortunately!

So now it serves as info center with exhibitions of different themes and topics of urban life in cities. The model inside of the building’s atrium gives you the perfect impression and orientation for the larger scale of the landscape.

There, you will also have the possibility to enjoy a good cup of coffee or tea. Sometimes people move their chair to the outside to sit next to the water and to enjoy the sun.

There are also guided tours you can take (pls. check  the website). Language won’t be a problem because everything is translated in English.

Most hamburgians haven’t fully discovered this spot yet… so going there will definitively make you look like a local!

The IBA Dock will definitely reveal you a very new face of Hamburg and I’m sure you will enjoy this very special spot a lot if you are into architecture, landscapes and in the culture of urban life.

There are many corny souvenirs on the market and I myself usually look for lasting gifts or originality to continue to embellish my self-made travel altar at home!

“Michel and Elbe”, a superb gallery in Eimsbüttel, can guarantee good quality photographs around Hamburg and its port. All images are stored, regardless of size and processing, limited to 50 pieces. This guarantees exclusivity. You will find many unusual views of Hamburg and images that convey great moods. In addition to the exhibits that are on display, there is a wide choice of motifs, all in different sizes and different materials (canvas on wood frame, Dibond etc.). Here you’ll find competent and detailed advice, even from the creative mind of “the captain” himself (Andreas-Schmidt-Wiethoff). His black and white love turned pure passion into the exciting business idea.

Photo animation makes it possible to see the effect of your chosen images in advance. You can borrow images or pick out a topic and they deliver the images. On request, they even change it after a few months and bring a new series.

In the meanwhile, his gallery has also become a platform for other artists. Together, they aim to offer stylish images of the city, the port and its people.

Don’t feel ashamed, if you come shopping only for a few postcards!

The forests’ house on the grounds of the IGS (International Garden Show) and the IBA (International Building Exhibition) in Hamburg Wilhelmsburg is architecturally and conceptually a new, globally unique multifunctional building.

What is forest? The focus of the forest house is the Forest Science Center where you can learn all about the woods of the northern German region. In a completely new, impressive and fascinating way it illustrates the themes and contexts of forest, environment and sustainability. On 600 square meters, over 2 floors and around 80 exploration and microscopy stations, a whole range of aspects of the forest are documented, presented, discussed and explained. The exhibition shows the relationship of the urban dweller of the forest as well as the biodiversity of the forest in a big city like Hamburg. Guided tours of 45 minutes will be charged with € 1.90 in addition to the entrance fee.

It also has a museum shop, multifunctional seminar and event rooms, a hotel (Raphael) and a restaurant (Wilhelms) in one.

Another special feature of the building is, that the upper three floors are made entirely of solid wood, a “lively” larch wood facade. There are plants nests embedded that can be populated by birds and insects. Also, the green roof provides habitat for plants and animals.

The Kesselhaus was the former energy facility at the end of the 19th century (1886/1887) to power the area of the Speicherstadt. Today it is a public interactive InfoCenter for the actual projects of Hamburg in architecture and urban planning connected to a café.

I love this location very much because it is a very nice starting or ending point for your own city tour to review your impression of the neighborhood and to get your own idea about the cityscape. The Kesselhaus provides you with a very nice and detailed model (scale 1:500) of Hamburg downtown which will help you very much for your sense of orientation and navigation beyond your visit on place as well.

Interactive multilingual displays will tell you about the history and development of the harbor & labor in the past and give you the outline of the City of Hamburg in future.

If you are lucky you will be able to visit temporary exhibitions or you can join the Landgang-Group every Saturday at 15:00 for an excursion of the area. Bicycle tours are also possible every 1st and 3rd Sunday from May to September (pls. bring your own bike).

The Café provides you snacks, cakes, cold and hot drinks. The prices are affordable. Definitively a must for everyone who likes urbanism, architecture and spaces.

Openings:

(Oct – Apr): Tue – Sun 10:00 – 18:00

(May – Sep): Tue – Sun 10:00 – 20:00

Public transportation:U-Bahn U3 to “Baumwall” or Metrobus 3 to “Auf dem Sande”

The most controversial building in Hamburg, but it is growing and thriving!

Not officially accessible yet, sometimes they offer open-air concerts at the ferry pier and hopefully in the nearby future it’ll be a unique place for classical, jazz, world and pop music, and a meeting place for all music fans. The artistic program is in the hands of Hamburg gGmbH (Dammtorwall 46), which is also responsible for the Laeiszhalle program (see current program 2013/14 here), which I highly recommend for the meantime.

Till then visit the site of the Elbe Philharmonic Hall during one of the 10 public tours every Sunday for individuals. The tours last about 90 minutes and begin every 45 minutes. Presale (see price below) starts one day before, either online, by phone or at the Elbe Philharmonic café culture (Mönckebergbrunnen). At 10:00 the first guided tour starts and the last is at 16:00 (November to March). The final meeting point is at the Elbe Philharmonic Hall Pavilion at the Magellan Terraces, where you will be prepared with a hard hat and rubber boots. I felt like a mixture of a stranded astronaut and a robot (your size might not always be available), but safety first!!!

Be advised and according to my own experience, please note that construction site tours are physically demanding and involve climbing stairs to the 12th building floor. It is not wheelchair accessible. For people with mobility problems or vascular disease, the guides are unsuitable.

Tickets are sold out till end of July!