Fishing port Harbor terraces and display windows at the fishing port in Bremerhaven

Complete and implement (1988 - 2008 )

The revitalisation of the fishing port began at the end of the 1980s. The harbour head known as today's shop window lay largely fallow. After the renovation of the fish packing hall IV, the first restaurants and fish smokehouses moved in. The former fish station opposite received a theatre, and an old antique with the 150,000 litre seawater aquarium. . The fishing port had its permanent address in Bremerhaven again. With the visitors the offers like summer cinema, markets, fish parties and the number of visitors increased because of the events. The Fischereihafen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH (FBG) as the municipal administrator of this largest commercial area of the city supervised the construction projects and events from the beginning. In 2006, FBG commissioned a feasibility study on the further development of the harbour area with a view to upgrading the public space. The changing image and the emerging pressure of use with its streams of visitors had to be taken into account.
It quickly became clear that the redesign of the public space cannot be about developing a new image and a new shape for the port, but to work with the place, to play and to interpret given structures and uses. The aim was to show the overlapping uses from 150 years of port history within an appropriate framework. Completion through implementation was the motto. The sensitive insertion of new design elements is set against the superimposition of a subjective design aesthetic. Aesthetics is not a standard, but a quality that arises from life, so the credo of the landscape architects who were entrusted with the redesign.
With a few design interventions, an attempt was made to strengthen the special character of the fishing port while preserving its function as an intact transshipment point and commercial area. Robust materials typical of the harbour, such as natural stone paving, asphalt or rough wooden planks were chosen to emphasise these interventions.

The best example of this is an old disused fountain, which has been transformed into a water feature with mist jets and light points. Large polygonal slates lie flush in the square pavement, exactly where the opening round of the former fountain used to be. Fog jets and spring jets alternate in time, causing wafts of mist to rise or clouds to reflect in its shallow waters. A wind rose made of coloured granite slabs, which surrounded the former fountain, was left in place out of its understanding for the acceptance of the grown place. This is how the new is found in the old.
The outdoor seating of the restaurants was moved from the building to the square. The resulting new alley between the building and the beer gardens facilitates orientation, exposes the historic Packhalle building, and opens up views of the quay. Large white parasols divide the outdoor areas and put an end to the hodgepodge of umbrellas and chairs. The variety in the unity, this freedom in the limitation turns the individuality of each individual out and animates the public area without taking it over.
The signet of the port visible from afar is the mast of the rear light also called "double grain" because of its two red cones.
The parking area below it, which is fissured into different levels, was ordered, the rear light as guardian of the scenery was left free. The parked cars were bundled into different packages and rhythmically distributed in the area. Associations with the event tents that are usually erected here arise. The monotony of common parking with the repetitive long rows of parked cars is thus avoided.

Wood and cherries
Cherries that previously stood in raised beds seemingly disorderly on the parking area around the rear fire were transplanted along the two main access areas. They now lead directly to the quays and to what is probably the most eye-catching intervention in the showcase, the harbour terraces. Where previously a steep grassy embankment and railings prevented direct access from the square to the water, large wooden-planked terraces now lead directly to the water. The concrete steps staggered in the seating steps make it difficult to descend quickly from the square to the water and deliberately take the speed out of the colourful hustle and bustle around the shop window. A place of lingering and contemplation has been created in the middle of Bremerhaven's largest commercial area.

The harbour terraces form the prelude to a further intervention along the quays. Here, in a later construction phase, a maritime band is to be milled into the ground. Visitors will be guided along commercial enterprises, gas station, museum ships and shrimp boats in the rear area of the fishing port and thus contribute to the revitalization of these areas.

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1. Complete and implement (1988 - 2008)