At the Phoenix Center, a formerly vacant shop space with regular opening hours was available for the wish production.
There were various formats: idea collection in a large book (further down). Vacant spaces and special places were marked on a large Harburg map.
Collages were created from various image materials. A printer was available to add missing pictures and texts. Additionally, visions and ideas could be designed using various materials.
Cities are always places of upheaval, innovation, and change.
What value does public space hold in society?
And how is it used?
Our goal is to raise awareness about the design of public spaces through an artistic approach and with an openness to outcomes that focus on the experience of Harburg’s spatial and urban structure.
How will people rediscover their cities of the future?
This creative research workshop embarked on a graphic and visual process to explore these questions.
Voices of Harburg
- Harburg's city center often feels like a labyrinth to me. I frequently don’t know which way is the best or shortest. I use all the shopping centers as shortcuts. I want to do a scavenger hunt. Or an immersive laser tag game. Maybe Pokémon Go would work too.
- Harburg is too dirty.
- Elbphilharmonie for Harburg.
- Karstadt – Südstadt.
- Harburg is messed up.
- Fewer construction works.
- Moorburg is also in Harburg; it lacks bike paths, a pub, and a store.
- What isn’t missing is a highway; Stop A26 East.
- Harburg is cool because it has many shopping centers.
- A lot of the St. Pauli vibe is here as well.
- Harburg is more rural and provincial.
- Prices are better, e.g., at the vegetable market.
- Conflicts are more raw; a two-class society (old Harburgers and people from international backgrounds) clashes more.
- North of the Elbe, things are more business-like, better packaged.
- Harburg is more honest; when there’s aggression, it’s aggression; when there’s love, it’s love.
- Harburg's inner harbor: aging hippies maintain old boats, there are still wastelands and vacant buildings, and you get one last look at decaying little ships, offering more quality of life than HafenCity.
- First residence in Harburg: Schlachthofstraße 20B. Favorite place: Phoenix Center. Harburg is my favorite district because it’s so diverse. There’s always something happening, and you never feel alone.
- There’s always a Harburg for me. I always buy something. If you ride the horse, pony, or lion for 4 minutes, you get a lollipop.
- The fast bus rides to and within Harburg, we are from Wilhelmsburg.
- One might think Harburg South is Harburg, but it’s not.
- The population structure can answer questions.
- Harburg needs something it can identify with.
- Where can the soup kitchen go?
- Harburg doesn’t accept being just a district; it always competes with the rest of Hamburg.
- The incorporation of Harburg into Hamburg was bad for the Harburgers; they’re still upset about it and still complain.
- Bergedorf is doing better than Harburg.
- Romanians and Bulgarians in the Phoenix Quarter.
- Wilstorfer Straße: Albanian crime, but it stays within their community.
- A bit confusing in downtown Harburg.
- There are still empty spaces amidst the city’s functional jungle.
- Harburg must engage more with its colonial past, kickstart processes faster, implement small projects, and not wait for one big solution.
- It’s cool that there’s an integration council.
- Too few visions for Harburg’s quality of life.
- Project ideas can easily be implemented with the 'Verfügungsfond'.
- In Harburg, you get all the essentials you need, but nothing more.
- In Harburg, it feels like you’re riding with the devil on wheels.
- Harburg is dirty.
- Harburg’s public transportation connections are miserable; the S-Bahn is overcrowded during peak hours.
- Organized crime in the Phoenix Quarter.
- Lack of diversity; Lüneburger Straße is predominantly Arabic, and Albanians don’t feel welcome there.
- Hamster-wheel-precariousness.
- There used to be clubs, but problems always arose whenever clubs opened back then.
- Villa Harburg: Top Ten.
- The NABU takes care of the Engelbek.
- It’s hard to tell what’s going on, e.g., with the S-Bahn; you don’t even know where to go, half-finished construction sites, and aesthetics are cleaner and more appealing elsewhere. It’s way too dark here.
- I’m puzzled by Buxtehuder Straße; it’s a shame that the crooked houses are surrounded by highways.
- The B73 is like a coastline: insurmountable, and the other side feels like an imaginary border. “Over there,” everything is new, like research institutes, universities, etc.
- Harburg’s inner harbor replicates what HafenCity does; it lacks clear architectural structures to provide orientation for people.
- Harburg has a more pragmatic dynamic (traditional).
- Democratic coexistence.
- Harburg is a two-class society.
- Globally known attacker Mohammed Atta came from Harburg.
- A bit flashy: cars.
- The Phoenix Quarter is our neighborhood.
- Internationalized Harburg.
- Harburg feels like it develops from the outside, not from within.
- Let’s see if the swimming pool or the bridge to the inner harbor gets finished first.
- The city of Hamburg develops faster than the district of Harburg.
- My favorite café suddenly turned into a men’s café.
- Harburg has lively shopping streets.
- Harburg needs something “fresh.”
- I wish for “breaks” between the shopping areas.
- Meeting point: Phoenix Center.
- There are too many arcades and bars in Harburg.
- All together now.
- Harburg is cosmopolitan.
- Harburg is big.
- There are hardly any corners in Harburg.
- Harburg spends a lot of money on leaf removal.
- The wealthy class designs social work for the “second class.”
- There’s a memorial for drug-related deaths in Harburg (near Burger King).
- If you’re in Heimfeld and the sun is shining, it feels like you’re in Italy.
- Harburgers are different from other Hamburg residents.
- When I get on the S-Bahn at the central station to go to Harburg, I already feel like I’m home.
- There’s no “see and be seen” in Harburg.
- When you walk around the Außenmühle, people don’t act the way they do around the Alster.
- Harburgers all somehow know each other; everyone knows everyone else through someone.
- At Phoenix, Am Sand, and on the Marktkauf parking deck, we used to hang out.
- Harburg is a hub for large-scale drug distribution in all of Hamburg.
- Harburg is really beautiful: Außenmühle, Harburger Berge.
- The TU is very demanding (informatics & engineering).
- Harburg is a district with a university but no student life.
- Karstadt should become a music venue with indoor mini-golf.
- Wilhelmsburg somehow belongs to Harburg.
- Are online shops to blame for Harburg’s limited offerings?
- Where can I buy a sewing needle?
- What’s the significance of the port in Harburg?
- The streets are characterized by former port supplier traffic; how relevant is that now?
- The older population in Harburg is being overlooked.
- Harburg is the southern soup.
- High occurrence of Gucci junkies.
- Too many betting offices.
- “Everything was better back in the day.”
- Harburg is too overlooked.
What is Missing/Wishes:
-Harburg lacks interpreters and shops for elderly people (clothing).
-Eißendorfer Str. 132; Budni is now missing there.
-A bar that stays open past 10 PM.
-More trash bins in the pedestrian zone.
-Street festivals that bring people together.
-An Uber that operates in Harburg (Moya is too expensive).
-Doner shops, physiotherapy practices, football fields, McDonald's.
-More places to relax during cold seasons.
-Specialty shops, e.g., locksmiths, cobblers, music stores.
-I wish for a better place for homeless people.
-A "Planten und Blomen" for Harburg.
-Burned-out cars should be removed faster.
-Swimming pool, sauna, boathouse, pedal boats, central bus station, Karstadt, Rieckhof (cultural center).
-Children wish for new playground equipment in Rönneburger Park.
-Action, Primark, Saturn.
-Bicycle lanes.
-Indoor playground in Karstadt.
-A "People's University" in Karstadt; no shopping now, but learning.
-An inclusive and integrative sports club.
-Inclusion theater.
-Zebra crossings on the streets.
-A center of education in Karstadt.
-More accessibility.
-Too little space for walkers in shops.
-Shelves in supermarkets are too high.
-Water in green spaces.
-More recreational areas.
-Public spaces should be designed to be more welcoming, e.g., more greenery.
-Too many cars, too little space for pedestrians.
-Too few offered activities for children.
-Quiet places where things can develop.
-The proximity to TUHH.
-Integrate nature.
-More public places for productive creativity.
-Interdisciplinary exchange/projects; Harburg has so much potential, networks, and collaborations.
-More creativity programs for children.
-Concepts are being imposed from outside.
-Karstadt as a networking space: co-working spaces, practical/productive uses, and much more.
-Repurposing a former department store like the Karstadt building seems easier because the city has purchased it.
-Skepticism about whether the repurposing construction will succeed.
-More stores with quality; fewer 1-euro shops and doner shops.
-Pubs and cozy restaurants are missing.
-Stores that don't belong to chains.
-Ice cream parlors.
-Family-friendly arcades.
-New Yorker: convert vacant buildings into open studios with gastronomy.
Top Four Harburg Quotes
"I use all the shopping centers as shortcuts."
"There’s always a Harburg for me."
"Harburg, the secret inventor of the 1-euro shop."
"Put on a pizza costume and dance."
W-questions about Harburg
What could be explored?
How could harburg develop?
How is harburg like in the moment?
What goals should there be for Harburg?
How do we implement this?
What kind of phenomens are in Harburg?
What do statistics tell about Harburg?
What hypothesis can be made from this?
are there studies about public spaces in Harburg?
What association we have about public spaces in Harburg?
What should take place inside of the empty karstadtbuilding?
What can be studied in Harburg?
Which institutes are in Harburg?
W-Fragen zu Harburg
Warum ist Harburg so wie es ist?
Hat die Gesellschaft das Interesse verloren, die Stadt mit zu gestalten?
Was könnte erforscht werden?
Wie könnte Denkmalschutz verändert werden, neue Perspektiven
Wie wird Harburg sich entwickeln?
Wie ist Harburg zur Zeit?
Welche Ziele sollte es für Harburg geben?
Wie setzen wir die um?
Was sind Phänomene von/in Harburg?
Was erzählen Statistiken über Harburg?
Welche Hypothesen könnten über Harburg gestellt werden?
Gibt es Studien über öffentlichen Raum in Harburg?
Welche Assoziationen gibt es zu Harburgs öffentlichem Raum?
Was soll im leeren Karstadtgebäude statt finden?
Welche Fachrichtungen können in Harburg studiert werden?
Welche Institute gibt es in Harburg?
Wo werden internationale Themen behandelt?
Funded by the District of Harburg, RISE, and local Partnerships.
Claudia Keulenkampff and Florian Tampe from "Interurban".
An initiative of Elbdeich e.V.
Contact: 0157/32479711
Instagram: interurban_hamburg
