PArkhouses are often regarded as eyesore in city centers, non-places and fear-filled zones that are often staged as scenes of crime in crime thrillers. Not even those who park in them love the parking garages – “get out again quickly” is the common impulse of all users.
To live in such a block – unimaginable! But that is exactly what should become reality in Hamburg’s inner city. A parking garage in Neue Gröninger Straße is to be converted into a residential building there. The budget is also limited, because exclusive floor-wide and airy penthouses are by no means planned. But apartments with fixed prices. And that is also flooded with light.
It is a daring and complicated plan, because parking levels are considered uninhabitable because of their dark structure and the land prices in the center are too high for social housing. However, if the Hamburg undertaking succeeds, it could become a model for other parts of the city and other metropolises.
After all, many cities are striving for a mobility revolution – fewer cars, more quality of stay. And there is always a lack of apartments. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the city has to give a lot of support to such a project.
The building should also open up to the neighborhood
Before that happens in Hamburg, the specially founded Gröninger Hof cooperative still has to overcome numerous hurdles. The location of the parking garage from the 1960s is complicated. As part of the old town, it is well connected and close to the historic Katharinenkirche. However, one of the busiest streets in Hamburg also leads right past it. Good for a parking garage, rather bad for a residential building.
The architects of the Duplex office applied the imagination required for such an elaborate renovation. They propose an act of violence to make the floors habitable: a huge hole is punched in the middle of the parking garage. This creates an atrium staggered upwards. Around 80 apartments are arranged, all with daylight from several sides. Planned construction costs: 28 million euros.
“This design also won the competition because part of the old one is preserved and a new part made of wood is created on it,” says Tina Unruh, chairman of the cooperative’s supervisory board. “It was also important that the inner courtyard goes all the way down to the ground floor,” said Unruh. The building should also open up to the neighborhood, with areas for culture and education, small businesses, restaurants and co-working.
Which also names the administrative difficulties in planning. Because, says Tina Unruh, “we asked ourselves how innovation in publicly subsidized housing can be achieved if the subsidy guidelines remain the same.” In fact, coworking offices are not included in the guidelines for social housing, nor are shared guest apartments.
Whoever wants to move in has to get involved
In Hamburg the planning succeeded anyway, with a trick. The communal areas are mathematically transferred from the officially approved living areas to the so-called hybrid areas. As a result, in addition to the residential and commercial function, communal areas are created. And they are eligible.
The endeavor to enable low social rents at this point is even trickier, especially with renovation costs in the double-digit millions. Here it turned out to be a stroke of luck that the city had not sold the property to the parking garage operator, but only leased it. And the new users can also use the property on the basis of a lease agreement.
The calculation basis was not the market price, but the much cheaper market value – a political decision of the Hanseatic city. “Hamburg is very interested in creating inner-city living space,” says cooperative board member Philippa Dorow.
In order to create the desired mix among the residents, interested parties are divided into “case groups” according to their income. The fourth, the one with the most money, is allowed to exceed the funding guidelines in terms of income. “They are also urban planners, creative people or architects,” says Philippa Dorow, “they have the possibilities and the skills to get involved.” This commitment to the project is recognized as civil society. Anyone who wants to move into the Gröninger Hof should somehow get involved in the community.
Every new comrade has to pay a compulsory share
The higher earners, as the building contractors found, are well informed, usually register for the project on their own initiative and participate in the issues of cooperative housing. The situation is completely different in so-called case group 1, for people with no or only a very low income. “Future residents with low incomes have completely different issues, they fight for their livelihood and do not come to us on their own. We asked ourselves how we could reach them and integrate them, ”explains Philippa Dorow.
The organizers know that the inhibition threshold for low-wage earners also lies in the financial framework. An apartment is rented to case group 1 for an inexpensive EUR 6.70 per square meter. But every new comrade also has to pay a compulsory share of 1000 euros plus a further 600 euros for every square meter of living space. For a 50 square meter apartment that would be a one-time fee of 30,000 euros.
If the cooperative’s share is financed through a loan, interest and repayment must also be added. Under these circumstances, it is of relatively little use to social welfare recipients, schoolchildren or students that their rent is highly subsidized by the municipal IFB Bank to 12.60 euros per square meter – as is the case with any other social housing.
“At this point, we are bringing charitable organizations on board,” explains Philippa Dorow. This refers to social institutions that are not part of the public sector, for example the student union or youth welfare. These organizations should become representative members of the cooperative, bear the corresponding entry costs and be able to offer their clientele cheap living space in the city center. In this way, the transformation of the old car park is not only an architectural, but also an institutional feat.
Nothing can be seen from the outside
A similar case in Cologne shows what the alternative would be. Five years ago, two of the original six parking decks were removed from a multi-storey car park on Magnusstrasse. 100 parking spaces were sacrificed. For this purpose, two rows of houses with 31 residential units were built on the area, 22 meters above street level. A 70-meter-long, curved pedestrian path runs between the whitewashed, two- and three-story buildings, reminiscent of an alley on the Greek islands.
None of this can be seen from the outside, the new apartments offer a retreat in the middle of the roaring city center. The difference to the Hamburg project: These are condominiums, average price 5560 euros per square meter, as of 2016. All apartments were sold by the time they were completed.
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