Hamburg to get cradle-to-cradle apartment block in HafenCity

"HafenCity and especially the Elbbrücken district have become a major, forward-looking laboratory for sustainable construction," said Prof. Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg, CEO of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH. The Moringa project, with its well-thought-out concept of "circularity and resource conservation", combined with intense greening, is a "particularly ambitious example of this", he noted. "It is almost more than cradle-to-cradle. It shows that at the level of large, singular, urban buildings, we can contribute plenty to sustainable urban thinking and building."

The complex will consist of three parts grouped around an inner courtyard. One third of the tenement building with 11,900 square metres of living space will house subsidised flats. The plans foresee co-living areas with communally used rooms,  co-working spaces, restaurants, shops and a nursery. The underground car park will offer space for over 400 bicycles and around 50 cars.

The cradle-to-cradle principle foresees the use of recyclable and healthy materials separated by type wherever possible. The aim is to achieve a recycling economy in which the building serves as a kind of material store. The focus is on generating economic added value and conserving resources rather than producing waste and disposal costs at the end of the life cycle. 

The verdant facade of the building should return "all of the land area" to nature. Rooftop gardens and the courtyard will be used for private and communal purposes, recreation, urban farming, work and talks. The name "Moringa" is derived from a healthy "super plant" with positive characteristics.
sb/pb