Karen Pein, Senator for Urban Development and Housing:

“Whether we’re talking about developing large neighborhoods, sustainable building, good architecture or innovation in housing construction: architecture and planning competitions are of particular significance for our city in a whole range of building tasks. Moreover, they are an important urban planning tool in Hamburg’s further development. This exhibition demonstrates the creative deliberation that lies behind every architectural selection process. At the same time, it gives the public access to an impressive archive of ideas.”

Franz-Josef Höing, Chief Planning Officer and initiator of the exhibition:

“ ‘The Entire City’ is also an appreciation of the work of all those involved in the process, who engage intensively with the city, with a particular place and with a building task, who prepare and discuss designs, and who present them to a jury. Competitions, and the commitment they entail, continue to be a prerequisite of the kind of built environment for which Hamburg traditionally stands. It is not by chance that there are so many places here that make Hamburg a beautiful city.”

Tatsuya Kawahara and Ellen Kristina Krause, KAWAHARA KRAUSE ARCHITECTS, curatorial team:

“Not only the winning project, but each individual entry to the competition also has a value in itself. The great creative potential and the numerous reflections of the place and the tasks that they contain are a resource that ought to be used. At the same time, the individual competitions do not stand alone. In the exhibition, we bring them all together. The overview of the many competitions that Hamburg has carried out in recent years depicts the places of change and themes that drive the city and urban society. A new overall picture is thus from many individual images. It’s when this large quantity of contributions is in relation to one another that their real value becomes apparent. The possibility for new narratives and interpretations for the city as a whole and thus its potential for the future.”

Kaye Geipel, Architecture critic, curatorial team:

“As a team of curators, we were attracted by the idea of showing for the first time in a single exhibition virtually all the architectural competitions and selection procedures of the last few years of a city – as a creative development tool for the entire city. In this way, the competition becomes a common and multi-voiced laboratory of ideas for the participating architects.

More than 6000 plans are on display. For a comprehensible “archiving” of this abundance of ideas, a hanging and a coding system that resembles an art project. Each individual plan can be traced back to its place and task in the city. That is why we speak of a large collective competition sculpture that is exhibited in Shed 29. As a curatorial team, we would like to see this richness of concepts continue to be worked on. It would be great if other cities were inspired to create comparable projects.”