ELBPHILHARMONIE HAMBURG | GUARDIAN GLASS
HERZOG & DE MEURON TRANSFORMED THE OLD WAREHOUSE INTO ‘ELBPHILHARMONIE HAMBURG’ THE NEW LANDMARK OF HAMBURG, GERMANY THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 3D CURVED GLASS FAÇADE FIRST DEVELOPED BY GUARDIAN GLASS AND THE ARCHITECT
TEXT: WARUT DUANGKAEWKART
PHOTO: CORDELIA EWERTH
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The Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, is one of the buildings known for its architectural splendour and its use of some of the world’s best acoustic systems. The project has the eminent and 2001’s Pritzker Prize laureates, Herzog & de Meuron, known for their masterful adaptation and reappropriation of the old and the new for their architectural creations.
What’s particularly interesting about the project isn’t just its captivating appearance and advanced technologies that are employed but also the historical narrative and context of the location, especially the old building in which the program is sited. Originally, the space was home to a government-owned warehouse (Kaispeicher). The government later initiated an idea to develop the building and the area into a new city center, housing a program of diverse public spaces, urban and cultural activities. The design takes a conservation approach by keeping the old warehouse building as the base of the newly constructed addition, and creates an intriguing fusion that merges the old brick structure to the new architecture where glass is used as a principal material. At the lower portion of the structure, function spaces are connected, embraced and run through the old warehouse’s space before the program leads up to the diverse functional areas on the upper floors, such as a concert hall, restaurants, bars, an apartment complex, a hotel including the rooftop overlooking the spectacular view of the city and its harbour.
The essence of the project is, however, the glass addition sitting on the top of the brick warehouse. Designed with the aesthetic merits that coincide with the functional program of the concert hall, the building’s dynamic materiality and surfaces render emotional responses with users. The spirit of Hamburg as a harbour city is expressed through the facade’s form and details that take inspiration from the sails of a ship and natural attributes of waves. It is far from common to see glass being used in its varying bent and curved forms to create a three-dimensional curved facade with the expansive 5,000 square meter surface. The collaborative process between the design team and Guardian Glass granted the architects incredible creative freedom, successfully materialising possibilities and imagination into reality.
The complex three dimensional curved glass façade is interesting for it is the novel invention specifically developed for the project, through an extensive and detailed research that seeks for a way to preserve the aesthetic and functional qualities of each type of glass, from indoor temperature control, exterior heat prevention, etc. with models such as Extra Clear, ClimaGuard®, SunGuard® are used to keep the design the closest to perfection. Architecturally speaking, the development of material achieved in this project has enabled many promising possibilities for the future works of architectural design.
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