FindingPlaces was a cooperation project between HafenCity University Hamburg and the City of Hamburg. In the period from May 26 to July 15, 2016, Hamburg residents took part in numerous workshops at CityScopes to search for public spaces suitable for the construction of refugee accommodation. The task: to find areas that could accommodate a total of 20,000 refugees.

The workshops were moderated by steg Hamburg (Stadterneuerungs- und Stadtentwicklungsgesellschaft Hamburg) and scientifically accompanied by tge City Science Lab. In addition, representatives of the districts and the Central Coordination Staff for Refugees (ZKF) supported the discussions with their expertise.

Almost 400 participants proposed concrete areas in the workshops and discussed the advantages and disadvantages in detail. 161 commented proposals were sent to the city for consideration. The city then reviewed the areas within 14 days. The review results were immediately published on the FindingPlaces website and in a brochure in September 2016.

The aim of the project was to promote a citywide dialogue on how and where to accommodate the high number of arriving refugees in Hamburg. At the same time, the complexity of the planning process was to be made transparent to the citizens involved in order to develop more acceptance based on this. The local knowledge of the participants was profitably combined with the expertise of the authorities and the scientific community.  In the process, not only individual sites were discussed, but rather a discourse in the context of different interests (residential / commercial / conservation) and legal planning requirements was promoted.

Click here for further information.