klinke is designing and organizing the careful repurposing of the former school on Bullenhuser Damm in collaboration with people from the neighborhood, as well as those involved in the arts, culture, crafts, small businesses, and work in the fields of memory studies and social services. Here, a space is emerging that is collectively sustained, self-organized, and constantly evolving. In the coming years, we plan to test out different formats and open the former school’s spaces to a variety of audiences and groups.
In collaboration with Hallo: e.V., UVM designs, organizes, and facilitates the artistic participatory process. Through a series of sequential steps, a collaboratively developed programmatic and spatial concept is emerging for the former school on Bullenhuser Damm as a public-interest-oriented space for production, education, and culture. The process includes, among other things, a comprehensive spatial feasibility study, workshops, and public events to develop a spatial and program plan; support for pilot uses to test spatial requirements; and the programmatic and design development of a “planning kiosk” as a spatial structure in the former schoolyard —a central place for arriving, planning, designing, and hanging out during the renovation phase.
Part of the preliminary study includes, among other things, a spatial survey of the building and an analysis of the neighborhood, as part of which a photo essay is being created in collaboration with the Hamburg-based artist Ali Haji. By wandering through the neighborhood together and engaging with the local community, we not only create a narrative about the space but also preserve spatial structures that will soon cease to exist due to the large-scale urban transformation taking place as part of the “Billebogen” development.
To help us collectively envision klinke as a future space, we collaborated with Hamburg-based illustrator Whitney Bursch to create a vision image that brings to life possible future activities, uses, and forms of klinke and conveys the process in a playful way.
To develop a shared spatial and program plan—an essential foundation for the architectural and spatial transformation—we conducted initial vision workshops. Among other things, we used the persona method toidentify the requirements and needs of usergroups from the fields of art/culture, education/social services, and production/commerce. Starting in 2027, additional workshops with specific userswill follow. In this way, a spatial program is emerging step by step and iteratively—one that takes the historical context seriously, captures the diverse needs of both old and new users, and transforms klinke into a commons as both a place and a process.
For spatial issues, we work closely with the Berlin-based architecture firm coopdisco, which translates the spatial and programmatic concept into a concrete architectural design for the building and brings it to life.
klinke is a project of Hallo: Verein zur Förderung raumöffnender Kultur e.V., which involves the careful conversion and restoration of the former school on Bullenhuser Damm in eastern Hamburg. The goal is to create a communal and self-organized space for work and learning.
In Nazi Germany, a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp was located at this school. On April 20, 1945, 20 Jewish children and at least 28 adults were murdered here. The “Bullenhuser Damm Memorial” commemorates these crimes.
Participation is at the heart of the project—current and future users of the building, in particular, along with other interested collaborators, play a key role in shaping the architectural plans and program structure. klinke aims to make the spaces of the former school available for shared use with people from the neighborhood, as well as those involved in the arts, culture, crafts, small businesses, and work related to memory and social issues. In the coming years, we plan to experiment with different approaches and open the former school’s spaces to a variety of audiences and groups—especially marginalized people*—so they can organize safe spaces for themselves to work and gather.
klinke is funded as part of the federal program “National Urban Development Projects” by the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development, and Construction, represented by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Development (BBSR). Hallo: e.V. manages 3.5 million euros for organizing the participatory processes and for interior construction. As the owner, BBEG manages 4 million euros for the renovation in accordance with historic preservation standards and for making the building accessible.
