Hamburg is home to HafenCity, one of Europe’s largest urban redevelopment projects on former port land.
HafenCity is being developed on former harbor and warehouse areas beside Hamburg’s historic center. The project expands the city with housing, offices, retail, cultural venues, public squares, and waterfront promenades while retaining selected historic warehouse buildings.
Construction began in the early twenty-first century, and the district is planned as a mixed-use extension rather than a single-purpose business park. Flood-resilient design is important because the site lies beside the Elbe River and is exposed to storm surges.
HafenCity is often associated with the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, which sits within the district. The concert hall is a landmark there, but HafenCity itself is the larger urban-development project encompassing a broad area of former port land.