HOPFENMARKT, HAMBURG , 2022, 1st PRIZE

The exhibition pavilion on the redeveloped Hopfenmarkt is an analogy to a roofed excavation site. It spans the “incision” into the underworld, where the foundation walls of Hamburg’s first settlement are being uncovered and will be open to visitors in the future. Its orientation follows the underground rampart, thus evading the “above-ground” directions of the Hopfenmarkt and the church ruins with a slight twist. At the same time, the pavilion represents a reminiscence of the market halls, which existed here for a long time. The minimalist spatial schedule consisting of an entrance area with a cash desk and a small café/bar, as well as the associated ancillary uses, is housed in a hall of light that illuminates this special place like a lantern in the evening hours. Two mirror-symmetrically arranged staircases take visitors down to the exhibition area and, at the end of the tour, lead them back up into the foyer and to the newly designed park. A pavilion architecture in timber construction: a typical construction method for temporary buildings, wood as a traditional and archaic building material. The new building plays with the factor of time, wants to refer to the fleetingness of history, to the overlapping of different historical layers at this place and thereby acquires its very own identity as a counterpart to the stone ruin of the Church of St. Nicholas.