Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus
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Technical Evaluation Mission An ICOMOS technical evaluation mission visited the Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus property from 22 to 26 September 2014. District with Chilehaus Additional information requested and received (Germany) from the State Party No 1467 A letter was sent by ICOMOS to the State Party on 10 September 2014 to request further information about the selection of the proposed boundaries for the nominated property and buffer zone, and the amount of the Speicherstadt that has been reconstructed; the Official name as proposed by the State Party comparison of Speicherstadt to other warehouse districts, Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus and the geo-cultural area selected for the Kontorhaus district; the visual impact of the Hanseatic Trade Center Location and the Elbphilharmonie on the setting; and the current Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg management of the nominated property, proposed Germany changes, and the long-term challenges for its protection and management. Brief description Speicherstadt and the adjacent Kontorhaus district are two The State Party replied on 16 October 2014, sending densely built commercial areas in the German port city of additional documentation which has been taken into Hamburg. Speicherstadt’s 300,000 m² of floor space make account in this evaluation. it one of the largest unified historic port warehouse complexes in the world. Originally developed between Additional letters were sent to the State Party on 22 1885 and 1927 (partly rebuilt 1949-1967), it includes 15 December 2014 and 12 January 2015, asking it to very large warehouse blocks and six ancillary buildings on consider the possibility of including additional Kontorhaus a network of short canals. The neighbouring Kontorhaus district buildings in the nominated property, as proposed in district includes a number of massive office complexes the Tentative List; to extend the buffer zone as a support built between the 1920s and the 1940s to house to the property and its protection; to implement the businesses engaged in port-related activities. Anchored by proposed Management Plan at the earliest opportunity; the Modernist Chilehaus office complex, the Kontorhaus and to reconsider the name of the property. district attests to architectural and city-planning concepts th that emerged in the early 20 century. The State Party replied on 12 and 30 January 2015, sending additional documentation. A meeting between Category of property ICOMOS and the State Party was subsequently held on In terms of categories of cultural property set out in 30 January 2015, following which revisions to the Article I of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, this is a nomination were submitted on 9 and 10 February 2015, group of buildings. which have been taken into account in this evaluation. Date of ICOMOS approval of this report 1 Basic data 12 March 2015 Included in the Tentative List 20 September 1999 (Chilehaus) 2 The property 1 February 2007 (extended to include Speicherstadt and the Kontorhaus district) Description The nominated property comprises most of Hamburg’s International Assistance from the World Heritage historic Speicherstadt (warehouse district), located on a Fund for preparing the Nomination 1.1-km-long group of narrow islands in the Elbe River, and None part of the adjacent Kontorhaus office district. The 20.95- ha Speicherstadt features 15 large 5- to 7-storey Date received by the World Heritage Centre warehouse complexes, six ancillary buildings, and a 23 January 2014 connecting network of canals and bridges, all originally erected between 1885 and 1927. More than 50 percent of Background the Speicherstadt was damaged or destroyed during the This is a new nomination. Second World War, but was substantially reconstructed. The nominated portion of the adjacent Kontorhaus district Consultations is a cohesive, densely built 5.13-ha area featuring six very ICOMOS consulted its International Scientific Committee large office complexes begun in the 1920s – Chilehaus, th on 20 century Heritage and several independent experts. Messberghof, Sprinkenhof, Mohlenhof, Montanhof, and Miramar-Haus – that stand out for their unity of function and their Modernist brick-clad architecture. 189 Speicherstadt architecture. Its sinuous monumental façades feature closely spaced brick pilasters. Speicherstadt, the “city of warehouses,” is the historic warehousing district for goods imported through the port of In contrast to the Chilehaus, the neighbouring 10-storey, Hamburg. Its warehouse complexes are subdivided into 18,200 m² Messberghof has relatively smooth façades, several identically designed fire sections which together largely without decoration. The focus is on the form warehouse “blocks.” Despite variations in workmanship in the technically demanding clinker architectural style, the blocks are generally cohesive in brickwork: the interplay between the slightly varying bricks overall appearance, due in part to their similar volumes and joints lends the building its particular quality. The and to the widespread use of red brick as the main massive 8- to 9-storey, 52,000 m² Sprinkenhof office exterior material, regardless of construction date. They are complex has largely unarticulated facades (so as to not also characterized by their inventive architectural design compete visually with the Chilehaus) decorated with and construction elements combined with advanced purely ornamental clinker-brick courses in a subtle technical installations and equipment. Expressionist diamond pattern that frames each window as well as the small, rounded terracotta reliefs that are Most of the warehouse blocks were built to a standard evenly distributed over the entire exterior surface. The 8- depth of between 25 and 30 m, subdivided into sections storey, 7,800 m² Mohlenhof has sober, unadorned brick by fire walls. Beneath their richly historicist façades are and stone façades punctuated by a grid of narrow modern skeleton frames that allow for large, non- windows. Decorative elements are limited to simple strips compartmentalized floor spaces and flexibility of use. The at the base and cornice levels of the building. orientation of the warehouse blocks is consistently parallel to a canal on one side and to a street on the other. On In order to more fully represent the Kontorhaus district, the both the canal and street sides of each multi-storey block State Party, by means of documents submitted to are loading doors arranged one above the other and ICOMOS on 9 and 10 February 2015, extended the topped by winch dormers that pierce the rooflines, forming nominated property to include three additional buildings, one of Speicherstadt’s characteristic architectural motifs. the Polizeikommissariat, Miramar-Haus, and Montanhof. The Polizeikommissariat, built in 1906-08, is located within Networks of short canals and bridges also contribute the same urban block as the Chilehaus. The nearby 7- significantly to the character of the Speicherstadt, which is storey Miramar-Haus was erected in 1921-22 as the first separated from the city centre by the 45-m-wide Customs building in the new office district. Its rounded corner and Canal, its continuation to the west, the Binnenhafen, and classically inspired tripartite composition recall an earlier the adjoining upper harbour to the east. Access by water stylistic era. Across the street and built three years later, is via two canals that run from west to east and then the 9-storey Montanhof features a clinker-brick façade converge to connect with the upper harbour. with a highly articulated crystalline corner that is Perpendicular to them are three minor canals. Numerous thoroughly modern in its Expressionist design. short bridges and elevated walkways span the waterways and interconnect the warehouse blocks with each other History and development and with the city. Most are riveted steel latticework arches Speicherstadt and the Kontorhaus district were begun in with beam ties and low-lying carriageways. Nearly all of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, respectively, to the nine streets have retained their original profiles, replace two of Hamburg’s existing inner-city quarters. including granite or porphyry cobblestones. Hamburg had become an important continental European port in by the end of the 19th century. The establishment of The Speicherstadt portion of the nominated property also a “free port” for the customs-free handling of foreign includes six ancillary buildings: the former Boiler House, goods, and the city’s incorporation into the German former Central Power House, former Coffee Exchange, Customs Union, underpinned a move to modernize its port former Manned Fire Alarm Station, former Winch facilities. It was in this context that the Speicherstadt (and Operators’ House (Wasserschlösschen, or Little Water later the complementary Kontorhaus office district) were Castle), and former Customs Buildings. Prominently sited, redeveloped. Hamburg grew to become one of the world’s most are picturesquely designed in historicist styles. busiest ports. Within the time span of a few decades, Hamburg’s city centre changed from a pre-industrial town Kontorhaus district to a modern city with commercial districts dedicated to The Kontorhaus district’s streets define a number of serving the economic needs of a metropolis, and more irregularly shaped and obliquely angled plots. Fritz Höger, particularly those of global trade and the international port. the designer of the large 36,000 m² Chilehaus office complex