Surrounded by several excellent parks, Hamburg’s district Steilshoop borders Europe’s largest cemetery and a recreation reservoir. With few connections to these nearby recreation opportunities, the high-rise quarter Steilshoop lacks access to nature, amenities, and most of all, a tangible centre, a place of assembly to strengthen the quarter’s multi-cultural identity.

While targeted interventions help to revive the “park city’s” original character, most of the restoration effort focuses on the creation of a centre – an open, urban city square that defines the district’s main north/south axis between the local church, shopping centre, and trade school. Supplemented by town sofas, occasional market days, and a boule court, pre-existing makeshift stores stuck to the buildings like tiny symbiotes are actively encouraged and serve as nuclei for the square’s prime function as a central stage for public social life and a new, shared existence.