The revitalization of harbour areas gone fallow provides many cities with an opportunity to renovate and expand from the inside out and at the same time augment their own attractiveness.

Photo: The revitalization of waterfront areas offers the possibility to open up the city to water; to reintroduce water as an element of the city. In Hamburg's HafenCity, the surface of the water was integrated into the planning, to increase the recreation and relaxation value of the waterfront, through carefully designed open spaces and markets.

Water is indeed a double-edged element. It can be life-threatening, as the recent flood catastrophes in Southeast Asia have so overwhelmingly demonstrated before our very eyes. At the same time, however, it can exercise an enormous force of attraction. This is proved not only by the numerous resorts and vacation centers that are found mainly on the coast and at lakes, but also by the fact that Venice’s reputation as one of the world’s most beautiful cities has not only to do with its historical edifices, but also and foremost with its location at and in water. And in this respect, the lagoon city is by no means the only one that was founded on water - to the contrary: a look at historical maps of the European continent will make it quickly clear that the oldest European cities that rose in the passing of centuries to power and wealth were located on the courses of rivers and in close proximity to the sea. They are harbour cities.

Just as it was in the past, the harbour is an economic center of gravity in cities like Amsterdam, Oslo or Hamburg. Nevertheless, in the decades following the Second World War the conditions for the transport of people and goods have undergone far-reaching changes. A trip on a ship is taken today at best for recreational purposes or pleasure, in short: a cruise at sea has in the meantime become a "luxury".

		Photos: Hamburg’s HafenCity is directly close to the city center and supposed to expand this center by about 155 acres. The planning concept respectively foresees the mixed usage of urban space here, including cultural attractions such as the architectonically ambitious project, the Elb-Philharmony (left). Through its prominent location on the top of the quay point, it will be a noticeable HafenCity landmark.

Freight transport, on the other hand, has not diminished in the least. To the contrary: bigger and bigger ships are transporting ever larger and ever greater quantities of containers that have to be worked and turned as soon as possible. This demands longer and longer quay walls as well as deeper channels and wider turning areas for the giant container ships so that the most original and basic of all harbour functions is shifting to new locations which are able to meet
present-day demands. As a consequence of these changing circumstances, huge areas in all of the harbour cities are often no longer used and consequently go fallow.

Whether the harbour is on the sea or inland - no city with a port is or has been left unscathed by this development. What in the first instance is experienced as a mild catastrophe by the affected city - jobs are lost on the one hand, and on the other the fallow districts frequently turn into social focal points - can nevertheless be an immense source of opportunities and possibilities. And cities that today (have to) take on the task of revitalizing their harbour districts at least have the advantage of being able to take a look at examples like Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco or New York, Sydney and the Docklands in London, as well as the developments that have been recently successfully completed or are nearing completion, like in Barcelona, the Eastern Harbour District in Amsterdam, the inner-city harbour districts in Copenhagen or Ruohalaati in Helsinki.

Among the chances that are offered by abandoned harbour areas is the possibility to extend the center of the city and provide it with an opening to the water. In almost every case, the city is found to have built its harbour in the relative vicinity of the center of town, and as a consequence, the city was generally cut off from the water. That the sentiment is not new that such a barrier between the city and the water is a disadvantage, but is something that goes back generations, is proved by a remark made by Oslo’s former director of city planning, Harald Hals, who had realized already in 1929 that the capital city of Norway was turning its back on the city’s most beautiful jewel, the fjord. In Amsterdam, where in addition even the railway station and tracks have wedged themselves between the city center and the harbour district on the Ij, this separation was less sharply felt, since - according to Dutch architect Kees Christiaanse, who is not only involved in waterfront development in Amsterdam, but also in Hamburg and Oslo - for citizens of Amsterdam, waterfront locations had always been found along the grachts and canals. Thus, for a long time, the topic of innercity renewal was only concerned in the downtown area.

In the meantime it has been realized here, as well as in other places, that waterfront revitalization can contribute foremost and above all to returning the urbanity to the downtown areas that are a distinguishing characteristic of the European city. This urbanity has often been left at the wayside in past decades as a result of (mis)development. The areas are indeed big enough to permit a multitude of uses: from downtown living to commercial operations, for shopping possibilities as well as for cultural and recreational facilities.

Eastern Harbour District Amsterdam

When concern was being directed to the revitalization of the quay islands in the east harbour district and on the south shore of the Ij that lay fallow since the 60s and 70s, the city of Amsterdam seized the opportunity to earmark the area as a near-downtown residential area. A total living area for some 18 000 residents was developed on the islands of Borneo, Sporenborg, Java and KNSM - row and apartment houses, to rent and for private ownership.

Photo: In Amsterdam, the rundown quay islands of the Eastern Harbour (Osthafen) were used primarily to create inner city residential space, to alleviate the acute apartment deficit in the city. Canals run through the residential area on Java Island - similar to the canals in the city center of Amsterdam.

On the other hand, a combination of functions was specifically incorporated into the plans for the Osterlyjke Handelskade on the south bank of the Ij, the last part of the Eastern Harbour District area. Here, old storage houses and warehouses were turned into lofts, office rooms, businesses and clubs, and alongside and in part above them arose new buildings whose scope of functions ranges from municipal housing units to exclusive penthouses, from cruise terminal to hotels and concert halls, and from combined living and working units for young company founders all the way to representative offices.

Photo: In Oslo, the future Fjord City stretches over roughly ten kilometres along the coast. Thus, for every future district, points of attraction and crystallization are planned, such as in Vestbanen, the Nobel Peace Center, as well as a cinema complex, a museum and a library.

HafenCity Hamburg

Whereas in Amsterdam the redevelopment of the Eastern Harbour District was already begun in the seventies and had already been completed in the quay islands in 2003 - the south bank of the Ij is approaching completion at present - the decision of the City of Hamburg to develop HafenCity was made only eight years ago. Nevertheless the first tenants and owners are already moving into the new offices and apartments on the Sandtorkai, and on the Dalmankai the plots of land on which some 650 apartments are to be built by 2008 have already been assigned. In total, the HafenCity area comprises some 155 hectares, the surface of about a third of which is water. As the area has bordered directly on the downtown area since the former free port with the historic "Speicherstadt" warehouse district was conveyed - the city hall is only 800 meters away and the main station a bit more than a kilometer - the development concept envisions a joint urban usage in every respect. Around 5500 apartments are planned as well as service areas where 40 000 workplaces are to be created. Moreover, the Elb-Philharmony is also in the planning. Architecturally it will sit on an old quay storage house and - similar to the opera house in Sydney - is intended to be a landmark of HafenCity. The heart of HafenCity, however, is represented by the so called "Überseequartier" , a city center in itself with cruise terminal, hotels and possibilities to shop as well as cultural and recreational facilities, including an edutainment center with the sea as its theme commensurate with the maritime character of HafenCity. Long in discussion was the linking of HafenCity to the local transportation system. In the meantime this question too has been decided: the Hamburg subway network will be extended by one line, which as of 2011 will run from Jungfernstieg into HafenCity.

Photo: In Bjorvika, the largest area of development in the fjord city, Oslo, the city’s new opera house will open its doors in 2008. Until then, the first office and residential areas will have been developed, too.

Fjord City Oslo

That such expansive city developmental measures cannot be coped with overnight is obvious. A period of 20 to 25 years is reckoned with in Hamburg, whereby it is not least the economic development that also plays a role. Investors are certainly easier to find in times of boom than in economically difficult times. Seen from this perspective, Oslo is starting with its Fjord City Waterfront Development Project at the right time. Norwegian economic growth is gaining in dynamics, the real estate market revving up again.

Unlike in Amsterdam and Hamburg where the harbour areas are relatively compact districts, the future Fjord City stretches a length of some ten kilometers along Oslo’s inlets. Of the total expanse of 225 hectares, plans have already been made for 85 hectares, and the other 130 hectares are still awaiting a decision. The first areas that have already been cleared and are awaiting development are Bjørvika, Tjuvholmen and Vestbanen.

Because the new area to be used is situated along the inlets, Fjord City will not have a center like the "Überseequartier" in Hamburg’s HafenCity. It is planned, however, that each development area will have its own center of attraction. Bjørvika, situated in the immediate vicinity of the main bus and train stations, and, with 69.6 hectares, Fjord City’s most expansive development area, is where Oslo’s new opera house is presently being built; and as a second center of attraction an aquarium is to be built on the pier projecting into the bay. Tjuvholmen is a peninsula some 3.3 hectares in size that borders on Aker Brygge, an area already reshaped in the 90s that has developed into one of the favorite city-center meeting places, especially in the summer months. The center of attraction here will be an art museum in the middle of a sculpture park on a small artificial peninsula. And in Vestbanen, a former railway area comprising 7.7 hectares and bordering on the city hall, Akershus Citadel and Aker Brygge, completion of the new utilization of the former station house as Nobel Peace Center is supposed to be reached this year. Further plans include a library, a museum and a cinema complex. Residential and commercial facilities are planned to be built around these "crystallization points".

By Marianne Schulze