> Student Work

To kick the studio of, we firstly concentrated on Signa: We did a research deep dive to understand how the company works and how they went bankrupt. Signa Holding GmbH is headquartered in the tax haven of Luxembourg and is considered a „small GmbH“ under company law. Although Signa has a balance sheet total in the billions, it has a turnover of less than 10 million euros, as it is purely a holding company. This also means that the annual reports do not require an audit. The real estate giant‘s business model works like this: By developing a property, land and building values are increased. These high valuations serve as a mortgage for new loans, through which the old loans are repaid and new capital is generated. As a result, Signa‘s assets increase and high dividends can be paid out, which in turn attracts new investors. Signa also relied on this principle for the Elbtower mega-project. However, during the construction period, real estate prices fell and interest rates and construction costs exploded. The rise in interest rates reduced the property valuation, as lower profits can be expected, and refinancing the loans becomes more difficult. The result is a pyramid scheme at the expense of the social structure, tenants and the environment when the financial industry invents money. (source 1)

„Signa is now one of the biggest players on the German property market. Its founder, the Austrian self-made billionaire René Benko, has created an entire property empire with Signa Holding in just over two decades. [...] Property appreciation is Signa‘s actual core business, as an analysis published in 2021 by the British business magazine Bloomberg suggests. The group always follows the same pattern: Buy properties in central locations and significantly increase their value.“ (source 2)

Shortly before the Elbtower site was awarded in 2018, the then Mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, and Signa boss René Benko met through former austrian chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, who is himself a member of the Advisory Board of Signa Holding GmbH, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Signa Prime Selection AG and Chairman of the Supervisory Board and investor in Signa Development Selection AG. When Scholz became Federal Minister of Finance, Peter Tschentscher took over as mayor. A meeting was arranged between him and Benko. On March 27, 2019, the building permit for the Elbtower was waved through within 3 months, and 18% more gross floor space was subsequently approved without the purchase price increasing. Finally, Signa was allowed to acquire the property for €13 million less than other bidders. The City of Hamburg commented on this as follows:

„These adjustments do not result in any economic advantage for the investor”. (source 1)
In the fall of 2022, Signa submitted a guarantee to Hamburg: a bank statement from Signa with a balance of 553 million euros and a loan agreement with the Hessische Landesbank Helaba as the lender, which was to act as a kind of auditor to secure the financing of the Elbtower. Helaba confirmed to the City of Hamburg that tenants had already been found for at least 30% of the tower before construction began. In January 2024, the most important of these alleged tenants, Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB), withdrew from the lease. Development: Proof of financing in fall 2022, handover of the property in January 2023, start of construction and disappearance of the capital in February 2023. Construction site shutdown in October 2023. As the accusations of corruption against Benko (who was no longer legally a managing director) became loud, the major banks no longer granted Signa loans. Signa‘s bankruptcy was imminent and the Elbtower remained in a ruinous state. (source 3)

In contrast to the way Signa is working as a big real estate Holding, the studio investigated different common ownership models such as: Community Land Trust, Mietshäuser Syndikat and different kinds of cooperatives. With all these informations in mind we started with the redesign of the building. Each group took their own approach. One group decided to follow the roots of speculation in HafenCity and concentrated on the Masterplan and how certain city rules can limit speculation. As a result, the group wrote a competition design for a sustainable development of the Elbtower without speculative goals. The designs of the other groups can be seen as entries to this competition. All groups were working on putting housing in the Elbtower, as it is always a necessary resource. One group dealt with the CO2 compensation for this building and decided to design a public park on the different levels. Another person researched the history of asylum housing on the property of the Elbtower and therefore decided to design a housing structure suitable for people who seek asylum. In addition an ownership structure for the financialization was developed. The next group tried to create luxury housing whose rental income should be used to finance the lower floors. As we visited Hamburg we also visited a lot of different initiatives in the area, who are all in need for space. One group took this as their concept and gave all these initiatives space in the Elbtower. Infrastructure was also a common topic. So one entry looked into the low density of schools in the area and therefore designed an open school concept in the big lower floors of the Tower. Another group tried to connect the HafenCity with the older city districts using  new bicycle paths to balance social injustices between the districts.
As collective work we designed a big map of the area around the Elbtower. This is further described in the chapter “GAP MAP”.

source 1) Ingolf Gritschneder, Georg Wellmann, february 7th 2024. René Benko: Der Zocker und die Politik. ARD Mediathek. www.ardmediathek.de/video/story/rene-benko-der-zocker-und-die-politik/ard/Y3JpZDovL2Rhc2Vyc3RlLmRlL2FyZC1zdG9yeS8yMDI0LTAyLTA3XzIyLTUwLU1FWg

source 2) Jonas Wahmkow, april 14th 2023. Das Spiel mit der Aufwertung. Taz. taz.de/Spekulation-mit-Immobilien/!5925353/

source 3) Stefan Buchen, may 8th 2024. Elbtower: Baubeginn ohne ausreichendes Kapital. In: Panorama 3. Norddeutscher Rundfunk. www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/panorama3/meldungen/Elbtower-Bau-begann-ohne-ausreichendes-Kapital,elbtower298.html

SoSe 2024, Vertical Studio Project

teaching: Prof. Dr. Gabu Heindl, WM Iva Marčetić, WM Florine Schüschke

students: Pelin Eroglu, Dario Fiege, Natalia Filimonov, David Heller, Moritz Heß, Lea Koot, Sebastian Kulle, Enya Müthel, Annabelle Oeste, Vera Osterheld, Paula Rönnau, Luisa Scheibelhut, Jakob Stähler, Naemi Sünderhauf, Dominika Szymonek, Salitanon Woranakprasitt