HAMBURG CONCERT TRIP
Updated: 2 days ago
I visited Hamburg in May to see my favourite acoustic artist, Tori Amos, play at the Laeiszhalle. It was my first time visiting the German city.
Whilst there I joined a guided cycling tour. Hamburg, particularly from an architectural standpoint, is an unusual city unlike any I have visited. This of course is as a result of its unique history which includes a combination of immense WWII urban damage, an anti-gentrification political culture and a once thriving manufacturing industry that is no more. Hence the cycling tour took us to places that exemplified some of these multi-faceted histororical aspects of the city. These included an abandoned theatre building, covered in graffiti, including protest graffiti against Hamburg potentially bidding to host the Olympic Games. The building's outer space had been appropriated into a skateboarding site. Adjacent to it was a former WWII bunker building that had been transformed into an abseiling wall. Another site visited was the former Montblanc pen factory, now a cinema, but where the original courtyard cobbled design can still be seen, depicting the brand's infamous star logo.
Cycling tour stops
Over the few days I spent in the city I saw some beautiful historic architecture. For example I really loved the redbrick Hauptkirche St. Petri built in 1849. What I loved was the detailing of the added copper plates. These are intended to dismiss rainwater hence protecting the brick beneath from it seeping it. I find this a perfect example of a 'happy accident' in design. Even though these plates are intended to be purely functional, aesthetically I find them transformative to the architecture as by adding this secondary material, in a way that lines existing architectural features, it punctuates the entire building with colour and rhythm. It also adds a secondary, contemporary feeling dimension to a cathedral that would otherwise feel generic or bland. Additionally I loved the red brick facade of the original entrance to the Montblanc factory, particularly the door. Constructed in 1906 it is a beautiful, minimalist example of art nouveau. It is an understated yet refined design, featuring few, yet highly detailed crafted features, namely the wooden carvings, set in three small rectangles that are characteristic of the period in their sinuous, overlapping branch-like motifs, and the delicate cross-shaped metalwork placed over the square glass panes, that are also somewhat reminiscent of twisted and irregularly shaped tree branches.
However, the most impressive building I experienced was the very hotel I was staying in, Fraser Suites. The building originally served as tax offices and was constructed between 1907-1910. This timing meant it was right at the junction of flourishing Art Nouveau and the emerging geometric inspired design that led to Art Deco. Hence both design approaches are seen in the architecture. Nevertheless the building also features quintessential Art Deco elements, which means their addition must have taken place in the decade of two that followed initial construction. For example, doors which are characterised by very beautful, geometric wooden carvings and ornately detailed, geormetric metalwork such as hinges and door handles. I also enjoyed the architecture's beautiful monumental spaces such as the wide, curving floor level corridors and striking staircases, the latter of which were both the earlier period geometic designed railings and the characteristic Art Nouveau, sumptuously designed floral ones, where its winding, wooden balescrade seemed as though it was floating over a whisping linear play of emulated folliage materialised in metal. The folliage elements had details which projected into the third dimension like beautiful sculptures.
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