The Building Exhibition within the Building Exhibition

Creativity and a spirit of innovation are required in order to rise to the challenges of our time in terms of sustainable building and community living. Completely novel types of construction and housing, materials, energy concepts, and architectural models are now transforming Wilhelmsburg Central into a showcase for the IBA Hamburg, and giving us a unique glimpse into tomorrow's approach to building and living.

Groundbreaking Models for Future Living

In the course of the “Building Exhibition within the Building Exhibition”, covering an area nearly as big as 6 football pitches, some 180 new apartments and space for almost 2,000 workplaces were created by 2013. All the buildings have one thing in common: they show today what could become tomorrow’s new benchmarks..

Four Sites for 21st-Century “Case Study Houses”

The project has sought out visionary, exemplary, and yet realistic building ideas that make use of smart construction materials, ideas for affordable homes, flexible housing models, and sustainable design, while incorporating the nearby water. This range of functions has resulted in the four themes for the “Building Exhibition within the Building Exhibition”.

Smart Material Houses demonstrate building using innovative construction materials.

Smart Price Houses set out cost-effective, inner-city building solutions.

The IBA demonstrates how flexible living will look in the future with its Hybrid Houses, which are adapted to the needs of the residents.

WaterHouses illustrate building concepts that are centred around and incorporate water, both as a resource and a risk factor.

From Architects’ Drawing Boards to Wilhelmsburg Central

Over seventy international teams made up of architects, material manufacturers, and investors responded to the open bid and honed their ideas and designs over the course of several workshop sessions. The results of the tender were wide-ranging, demonstrating the diverse interpretation applied to the themes when seen from different perspectives. Further multi-tiered selection procedures were conducted for the four types of houses, all aimed at investors, planners, and material manufacturers, with a view to putting together teams to implement the different projects. This approach has resulted in the construction of innovative homes that are the first of their kind in the world, providing families, couples, singletons, and people with different financial means and lifestyles a home in which they can feel comfortable, while also acting as a forward-looking model for the cities of the future. As the whole process was centred around the best concepts and ideas rather than the highest financial bids, the land was allocated according to a fixed-price procedure – in other words, awarded according to the purchase price set out in a valuation report.

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