Georgswerder Energy Mountain, Hamburg A project of the IBA Hamburg

An artificial promenade circling the mountain peak - the Horizon Trail - offers unobstructed views in all directions and invites visitors to stay on the "mountain". At night, a mysteriously glowing white ring illuminates the Energy Mountain. Visible from afar, it is a landmark for Hamburg. The secured landfill, once perceived only as a "mountain of rubbish", becomes a usable open space and a new destination for excursions.

The Georgswerder landfill hill on the Elbe island of Wilhelmsburg was developed into a regenerative energy mountain as part of the IBA Hamburg. With wind power and solar energy alone, it supplies 4000 households with electricity.
For this purpose, it has been made publicly accessible as a vantage point.
The hill, which rises to a height of around 40 metres, is visible from afar and is covered in greenery, has an eventful history. After the war, rubble and household waste was piled up on the flat meadows, later toxic industrial waste such as varnishes and paints were added. In 1979, landfill operations officially ceased, but in 1983 it was discovered that highly toxic dioxin was leaking from the base of the man-made mound and entering the groundwater. The landfill mound and subsoil were then extensively secured. The landfill landscape was then secured with a plastic sealing membrane and covered with topsoil, and the first wind turbines were built. To this day, the groundwater is protected with extensive technical measures.
Today, the city's energy hill is opening up. The hill as a technical structure remains a closed and secured landfill in the future. But it offers a fantastic view over the city of Hamburg, the port, over the harbour, industry and motorway and the green plain. With the opening, an area the size of the Binnenalster has been made accessible as a public information landscape and the Horizontweg as a viewing promenade. And it also broadens the horizon in other respects: by providing the opportunity for a small educational journey that tells of the transformation of a toxic waste site into a location for regenerative energy production.
The supporting idea is the Horizontweg, a promenade circling the mountain peak, developed from the topography, in parts clinging to it, in parts swinging out on steel supports. But always exactly on a level below the highest point. Accessed via the barrier-free serpentine path or the stepped shortcut, the place of arrival with a view of the towers of Hamburg's city centre becomes an entrée with flanking seating steps. The outside of the railing of the horizon path is illuminated in the dark with LEDs and transforms
the mountain into a landmark visible from afar.
An information building at the foot of the mountain with an exhibition on the history of the landfill complete the IBA project.

Special award for sustainable outdoor facilitiesGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2015

Jury verdict: Sustainability proves not least how we continue to deal with the regrettably large waste landscapes of our society. The Georgswerder Energy Mountain offers a convincing contribution to this debate. Until the end of the 1970s, when it was created as a huge mountain of rubbish at one of the entrances to the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, it gained sad notoriety as a life-threatening, dioxin-contaminated site.

In addition to purely securing the site, Hamburg has now ventured to reclaim this man-made mountain as a space for living and experience, with as little invasive intervention as possible. As a place of examination of the consequences of our waste management, but also of our possibilities of regenerative energy production, the mountain took on a new meaning.

With the striking shape of the loop band, with no discernible beginning or end, a far-reaching footbridge now stretches over the waste mountain, which not only brings visitors closer to the various forms of regenerative energy production - including the use of waste gas - but also very successfully invites them to discover Hamburg's multifaceted urban landscape. Cleverly positioned and dimensioned along the various energy generation plants, the Loop is far more than just a new path, but rather a very contemporary space for various interests and activities. Unlike many buildings, moreover, this Loop is deliberately designed to be sustainable and easily reversible, so that it can be returned to a circular economy.