What to do with Germany’s World War II relics? Instead of pushing them to the background, the city of Hamburg has decided to give them a whole new life. An iconic air raid shelter in the St Pauli district has been turned into a green urban oasis, giving the building a new lease of life.
Built on the orders of Adolf Hitler himself after the air raids of Berlin in 1940, the St Pauli bunker, or Hamburg Bunker, is one of the few still standing. The massive concrete construction hosted up to 25,000 people during the war and, over the years, it has been used in many ways, including as emergency housing and as a nightclub. After major alterations, the landmark reopened its doors on 5 July, sporting a modern and green roof extension spread over five floors.
The addition includes restaurants, a cafe, event spaces and a Hard Rock hotel. The hotel is the first of Hard Rock’s Reverb hotels in Europe and is filled with references to the Beatles, who often played in Hamburg during their early days as a band. Moreover, it is equipped with some of the latest high-tech functions, while also boosting a co-working space and being pet friendly. With the night club on the ground floor of the bunker, the hotel is ideal for those who don’t want to walk too far after a late night out.
The most important feature of all, however, has to be the public rooftop park, accessible via a walkway that wraps all the way around the building. Its overload of trees, shrubs and plants of all kinds gives the whole building an urban oasis feel and makes it an integral part of the cityscape.
Pitched for the first time a decade ago, the idea for the rooftop park came from local entrepreneur Mathias Müller-Using, who got his inspiration from the High Line in New York and the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro, which also boasts a walkway. Even though the result of the extension might not look as leafy and green as originally intended, the park should only continue to get more luxuriant. Most of the plants have been selected and are being taken care of by specialist landscape designers and gardeners, who based their choices on the unusual terrain and weather conditions. Thanks to sensors on the roof, data will be collected concerning heat storage and evaporation, turning the building into a sustainable research centre.
