The Hamburg bunker at Heiligengeistfeld

The high-rise bunker at Heiligengeistfeld in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, built in 1942/1943, impresses with its imposing footprint of 70 x 70 meters, a height of around 40 meters and walls up to 3.8 meters thick. It is one of the largest of its kind. After the end of the Nazi era, it initially served as a media and music bunker as well as a space for art and culture. However, its massive construction and isolated location made it a difficult place to access for decades.

Eleven years ago, Hamburg entrepreneur Mathias Müller-Using, known for his innovative urban planning projects, began to realize his vision for the bunker: to preserve and protect the structure while transforming it into a green building. His concept was to construct a publicly accessible ramp around the building that winds its way up to a height of 60 meters. He was inspired by Oscar Niemeyer's Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói and the High Line in New York. Together with architects Tim Schierwater, Michael Kuhn and INTERPOL Studios, Müller-Using planned the greening and extension of the bunker as well as the construction of a roof park from 2013.

The redesign of the anti-aircraft bunker, which originally served as an air defense system and provided shelter for tens of thousands of people, created space for a hotel with 134 rooms, a restaurant, a bar, a café, district rooms and an event hall for 2,200 people. Parts of the old bunker were designed as memorial sites to commemorate the forced laborers and anti-aircraft gunners of the Nazi era.

The landscaped areas, including vegetable patches, a green ramp and a meadow on the roof, have turned the once forbidding building into a green oasis in the middle of the city. This project, supported by the district association Hilldegarden e.V., offers access to the general public and creates a new living space with extraordinary qualities. With this conversion, the bunker at Heiligengeistfeld has become a symbol for dealing with wartime architecture and for the creation of sustainable, urban living spaces.