"Floating Limits" - Anna Laura Petrucci

CSIAA, Hamburg - senior discussant

In Hamburg the Speicherstadt along the harbour river was established in 1881 as warehouse district. This duty free area was for the citizen a real border inside the town, extremely stressing the usual long-distance relationship between living and cruising.

In its one century long existence this asset of the waterfront resumed for Hamburg many different meanings of limit: vertical tidal limit flowing with a range of 7,5 meters on the hillside of Altona, end of the natural shore of Oevelgoenne, artificial riverside in the operating harbour docks, outlined customs boundary, threshold for the immigrants.

Today the new waterfront asset of Hamburg, opening to the town the custom's border becomes the signal of a new way of life. The waterfront border line has been transformed to border area where the buildings of Hafencity and IBA-Hamburg 2013 are operating as new communication tools.