Harbour safari 1-4, Hamburg

AppreciationGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2007

Jury verdict: The port is one of the most important elements of a common "Hamburg identity". But more and more it is "withdrawing" from the public; large areas are becoming private property, are no longer accessible to the public, are developing rapidly or lie fallow. The Hafensafari accompanies the transformation process, stages the areas for a summer. And it has been doing so for four summers.

"Landscape is created in the mind." Based on this insight, a group of landscape architects and planners has been engaged for several years. Unknown, changing and unfamiliar landscapes in the port of Hamburg are opened up to all interested parties within the framework of public guided tours and temporary works of art.

The perception of one's own environment is intensified and questioned in the process. For the spatial reference of the artworks sharpens the eye for the surroundings of the installation, but also for the interplay of the different spaces. "As spectators, we discover the timeless and recognize the temporal."

Not the individual, temporary interventions created by landscape architects, artists and students are to be judged herewith. What is being honored is the profession's consistent effort to perform an important cultural task together with neighboring disciplines.