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Architectural Review, The, July, 2003 by Layla Dawson

From 30 exhibitions in 1994, Hamburg's triennial Architecture Summer has now grown to over 200 happenings held in museums, cafes, shopping arcades, and even under open skies--weather permitting--between May and November. Perhaps due to Hamburg's recent disappointment in failing to become Germany's candidate for the 2012 Olympics, this year's Architecture Summer had a profile-raising grand opening at the Rathaus. The government dedicated itself to development on both sides of the Elbe, including low income and immigrant areas, and architect Jurgen Bode took the opportunity to demand a Hamburg Building Academy, in which architectural training, now spread between several institutions, could be rationalized.

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Hamburg's former building director, Egbert Kossak, tolerated no architectural fireworks in his restoration of a war-damaged metropolis, but today, according to Ullrich Schwarz of Hamburg's Chamber of Architects, 'Every style and trend has arrived in the city, albeit in modest form'.

In choosing the umbrella title 'Modern Ways' for its fourth fete d'ete, Hamburg celebrates the fact that there is no longer a single vision of architecture, borne out by its own evolution over the last decade. The city has developed far beyond Fritz Schumacher's brick facades--Foster, Miralles, Fuksas, Alsop, Citterio, and Atelier 5 are among those who have made recent contributions.

Hamburg's HafenCity alone is the focus of 14 art and architecture events. At the heart of this customs warehouse and port area, the Kesselhaus (Boilerhouse) InfoCenter is showing works in progress. Hamburg is both land and water and its position on the Elbe is explored with national competition entries for a moveable bridge, a historical survey of cities on the sea (with Le Corbusier sketches and a digital view of Shanghai), and a social chronicle of harbour working conditions. There is even a tour of building sites with live music accompaniment. On the less privileged south bank, the revitalization of Harburg's canals is featured in an exhibition of live projects and Stefan Behnisch presents his work at an art gallery in Harburg's railway station.

The well-received Arne Jacobsen retrospective, Absolute Modern, held to mark his centenary, comes direct from Denmark's Louisiana Museum. Along with a comprehensive overview of Jacobsen's architecture, furniture, paintings, photography, textiles, posters, and landscaping, there is also a full-scale reconstruction of a room from the SAS hotel. Hamburg itself boasts some examples of the master's work; the HEW offices (1969), and the Christianeum high school (1971).

Fritz Hoger's Chile Haus, Hamburg's best known architectural landmark, was the inspiration for the Architecture Summer logo and another aspect of Hoger's work is revealed in the new exhibition, The Other Moderns of Fritz Hoger, with some 200 exhibits that have never been shown before. Generally, the programme of exhibitions strikes a good balance between the historical and contemporary, with German and Hamburg architects prominently represented. They include A Reflective Modernism (first shown at last year's Berlin UIA conference), 25 Years Building in Democracy and Made in Hamburg. One of the few German architects with an international profile, Hamburg-based von Gerkan Marg und Partner present a show of an astonishing 70 projects in China, of which 14 are already built or under construction.

The diversity of subject matter is impressive. Photographs of Venetian Palaces by Carlo Ponti and the nineteenth-century landscaping of Joseph Ramee rub shoulders with nomads' tents and megacity Bombay. Even a feng shui consultant has found a niche to soothe troubled speculators. (Criteria for inclusion are, admittedly, sometimes mystifying.) Though the bandwagon sometimes tends to be weighed down by obscure installations masquerading as architecture and architecture as art, does it matter? Taking part is everything and Hamburg's summer festival is still welcomingly inclusive, allowing everyone a chance to perform.