WASTELANDIA (Two wasteland architectures)

Reused timber, wild-grown tree trunks, found steel, filtered Elbe water, variable dimensions, realized at the Center for Spatial Cosmology, HCU Hamburg, 2025.

The two experimental structures of “Wastelandia” were created on the Baakenhöft, an urban wasteland in Hamburg shaped by former port infrastructures, contaminated ground, spontaneous vegetation and ongoing processes of urban transformation. Conceived as temporary architectures for the Headland Festival, the structures approach the wasteland not as an empty or deficient site, but as a spatial archive of different materials, temporalities and forms of life.

The wood pavilion combines reused elements of traditional roof constructions with irregular tree trunks and branches from Hamburg forests. Along its ridge, conventional carpentry and an improvised, forest-like structure merge, bringing architectural order into contact with organic growth and unpredictability. The water pavilion consists of found steel elements arranged as a circular gathering space. At its center, filtered water from the nearby Elbe is transformed into a suspended cloud of mist, confronting the solidity of the metal structure with an ephemeral and constantly changing atmosphere.

Built from reused and locally sourced materials, both structures are reversible interventions into the existing terrain. Activated through gatherings, performances and collective events, they transform the wasteland temporarily into a ritual space between abandonment and appropriation, stability and transformation, memory and imagination.

Direction: Michael Hirschbichler In collaboration with: Jeanne Astrup-Chauvaux, Janis Wegner, Can Peter Grothman, Ali Al Saadi, Dr. Elizabeth Gallón Droste, and local actors

Students: Nazan Akkol, Pietra Alves, Nansi Attia Hassan Hassan Ibrahim, Valentina Barisic, Niklas Busse, Helena Stövesand, Rosa Cors, Camila Cossio Dominguez, Beyza Erol, Adrienne Heselhaus, Jonathan Holste, Jonas Horney, Antonia Kaegeler, Lalenur Kolcak, Imgesu Korkut, Melda Köse, Viktoriia Kovalenko, Nguyen Le, Maria Del Carmen Lopez Alsina, Elias Meyer, Johannes Nymmerga, Simon Pfretzschner, Noel Pinna, Sona Schilbach, Ana-Francesca Soare, Haya Soukkar, Emma Thies, Noha El Osman, Emi von Bröckel, Lena Willuweit, Helin Yener, Dilara Yilmaz.