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HafenCity Universität is opening its doors and inviting visitors to take a look behind the scenes. The event HCU in Dialogue is being held as part of HCU’s 20th anniversary celebrations and is open to both members of the university community and the wider public. Under the theme Interdisciplinary Solutions to Global Issues in Our Built Environment, on 11 June 2026, visitors can take part in lectures, workshops and hands-on experiments – a programme that reflects the full interdisciplinary and methodological breadth of our university.

An event as part of the Hamburger Architektur Sommers 2026.

Information and registration

Workshop-Session 1

In this workshop, participants explore selected locations in and around the HCU that form part of the Green Campus feasibility study. Working in small groups, they develop their own ideas for redesigning these spaces – inspired by the study’s findings. Back in the seminar room, the groups translate their visions into creative prompts for an image AI. In doing so, they redesign the spaces and visualise possible futures for HCU. Finally, everyone reflects together:
  • AI reflection: Which futures are already embedded in the AI models and are becoming visible?
  • Ethnographic approach: How did the participants perceive the spaces during their exploration? And how do the redesigned spaces affect them when, at the end, they reimagine themselves in the original spaces they knew before the redesign?
Organisers: Paul Linnow, Anna Lisa Jakobi
Format: Workshop
Room: HVP-2.103
Language: German/English
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This lecture will explore the urban planning and architectural aspects of innovative forms of housing in high-rise buildings. These two highly topical and complex issues are of central importance for the future urban planning and architectural development of Hamburg and many other cities in both national and international contexts.
Format: Lecture by Paolo Fusi, Professor of Urban Planning and Urban Design, HCU, and Piet Eckert, E2A Zurich and Professor of Structural Engineering, TU Dortmun
Room: HVP-1.103a
Language: German
No registration required.

Design a coaster or breakfast board using CNC or laser engraving. You are also welcome to bring your own wooden board.
Organisers: Sven Friedrich, Ralf Mallmann
Format: Workshop
Venue: Model-making workshop
Language: German
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All researchers are invited to get to know and connect with others in a fun and engaging way. Especially for early-career researchers, the event offers a great, casual opportunity to meet other participants. Participants engage in a structured format for academic exchange. Each person has 1 minute to introduce their research, background and interests before rotating to the next participant.
The session is designed to:
  • Encourage interdisciplinary connections
  • Provide a casual networking opportunity
  • Support especially early career researchers in building connections
  • Create a fun informal atmosphere in an academic setting
Organisers: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ayse Glass
Format: Science Speed Dating
Room: HVP-2.101
Language: German/English
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In 30 minutes, we’ll show you what content ARTE Campus offers for HCU’s research fields and, above all, how you can use interactive tools to effectively incorporate video clips, mind maps, and transcripts into your teaching or learning.
Organisers: Alexandra Jobmann
Format: Coffee Lecture
Venue: Magazine Lounge
Language: German
No registration required.

In 30 minutes, we’ll show you what content ARTE Campus offers for HCU’s research fields and, above all, how you can use interactive tools to effectively incorporate video clips, mind maps, and transcripts into your teaching or learning.
Organisator:innen: Alexandra Jobmann
Format: Coffee Lecture
Venue: Magazines Lounge
Sprache: Englisch
No registration required.

Over the past 20 years, HCU has become firmly established in HafenCity, but interaction within the neighbourhood is often still lacking. We want to change that!
That is why we are inviting our neighbours from HafenCity to join us, so that we can get to know one another better and discuss current issues. In particular, we want to use the “HCU im Dialog” platform to jointly develop ideas and concrete solutions for our shared neighbourhood that will lead to more green spaces and liveable open spaces in HafenCity.
To this end, committed stakeholders from HafenCity and students from HCU will provide some food for thought, and we will gather ideas together during the subsequent discussion. We look forward to welcoming anyone interested in making our neighbourhood greener.
Organisers: AG Freiraum at HCU, Netzwerk HafenCity e. V., Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung, Loki Schmidt Stiftung and many more
Format: Networking event
Room: HVP-2.104
Language: German
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From the very small to the very large. Here you can find out about the various experimental testing methods used in the construction laboratories. We’ll show you how we characterise building materials at the atomic level and how we can make tiny details visible using lasers and X-rays. But we can also test large components under tensile forces of up to 1 MN and compressive forces of up to 5 MN.
Organisers: Irina Lokteva, Leif Kayser, Alexandros Apostolou, Marcus Illguth
Format: Guided tour
Room: 2.111 Metal Workshop
Language: German
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The EU-funded P2GreeN project is testing the reconnection of the agri-food sector with urban and rural areas through a circular nutrient system in three pilot regions: human waste from urban areas is processed into fertiliser, which is used to produce agricultural products and subsequently returns to people as safe food. This circular approach addresses the current problems of high import costs for fossil fertilisers and the simultaneous nutrient pollution of water bodies from sources such as sewage.
The workshop will:
  • Examine the technologies, the circular concept, their implementation and their integration into planning
  • Discuss further examples and general challenges in implementation
  • Develop a plan for application in the Hamburg metropolitan region, depending on the interests and expertise of the workshop participants
Further information: www.p2green.eu
Organisers: Andreas Obersteg with project partners (agrathaer, Goldeimer)
Format: Keynote presentation with workshop
Room: HVP-2.107
Language: German
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Introductory talks on the technical systems in Lecture Halls 200 and 150. A presentation using a 3D model and an explanation of how the system is integrated into teaching operations, including a review of the results from student projects. This will be followed by a tour of the lecture halls and the system’s technical control centre.
Organisers: Tanja Skottke, Philip Weidig, Christian Grote
Format: Presentation and tour
Room: HVP-2.108
Language: German
No registration required.

This workshop views embroidery as a collective and material practice of exchange and learning. By combining feminist theory and practice, we create a space through shared reading, discussion and embroidery to translate thoughts, experiences and reflections into textile forms. By sewing the individual pieces of embroidery together, we create a collaborative object that brings collective processes and shared knowledge to life.
Organisers: Tabea Schamp, Berit Jagels, Lea Struckmeyer, Finnja Korn
Format: Workshop
Room: HVP-2.102
Language: German/English
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While many research streams and funding agencies expect interdisciplinary collaboration, especially from early-career scholars, academic careers in the German context are still mostly based on discipline-related output and visibility. It is often difficult, for instance, to place results of interdisciplinary collaboration in peer-reviewed journals. Many journals still operate within quite narrow disciplinary boundaries and scholarly communities. The same goes for academic networks and conferences which are partly quite limited by disciplinary boundaries. The effect is that research output is often valued based mostly on disciplinary criteria while interdisciplinary experiences are not acknowledged or valued. Against this backdrop, the roundtable aims to open a discussion on the opportunities, challenges, and strategies of pursuing interdisciplinary academic work at an early career stage. To address this, we ask scholars who have established themselves or are actively working within interdisciplinary research contexts: 'How, as a scholar, does one navigate interdisciplinary expectations within a disciplinary  academic context?'
The session is hosted by the research training group "Urban future-making" and organized as round table with an open Q & A. All early-career scholars interested in the topic are welcome to join.
Organisors: Dr. Louis Volont, Arjama Mukherjee
Format: Roundtable
Room: HVP-2.109
Language: Englisch
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This workshop introduces mycelium composites – a bio-based material made from fungal mycelium and organic waste. A short presentation will provide an introduction to the properties, production and potential applications of mycelium composites in design, research and sustainable construction.
Then it’s time to get hands-on: in the practical session, participants will create their own small object. As the material needs to continue growing like a mushroom, the object will then be finished independently at home.
No prior knowledge is required. The workshop is aimed at anyone curious about fungi as a material of the future.
Organisers: Lennard Thier, Celina Hunschok
Format: Workshop
Room: HVP-2.106
Language: German
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Building with birch bark has been a widespread vernacular construction technique for centuries. Thanks to its water-repellent yet flexible properties, birch bark was used to seal walls, floors and joints. It was also used in the construction of canoes and boats, for tents, as well as for containers and everyday objects.
Today, this knowledge has largely been forgotten. Yet, as a natural and renewable material, birch bark could represent an exciting alternative to conventional waterproofing membranes and provide new impetus for contemporary building.
Together, we would like to rediscover this special material. In our workshop, we will explore its properties and work with it in practice.
We look forward to welcoming all participants and to a shared exchange on materials, craftsmanship and sustainable building.
Organisers: Luis Neuber, Studio Frugal Bauen
Format: Workshop
Venue: Outdoor terrace, 1st floor
Language: German
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Workshop-Session 2

How can cities be made safer, more sustainable and better understood? We will demonstrate how artificial intelligence and semantic 3D city models can support this: from the automated enrichment of building-specific information, through the use of such models to plan safe cycle routes, to identifying opportunities for green roofs to help cool the city, as well as detecting potholes in the road network.
Organisers: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Youness Dehbi
Format: Presentations and interactive models
Room: HVP-2.107
Language: German/English
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  • CSL Introduction
  • Standing Tool Demonstration (4 selected tools)
  • Discussion about International Experience and Challenges
Organisator:innen: Alexandra Knapke
Format: Interactive tool demonstration
Meeting point: Information point in the foyer on the 1st floor of the HCU
Language: English
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Experience the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and HCU in a whole new way. Embark on a short rally across the campus, discover exciting spots and be inspired by sustainability topics. At the information stand, you can find out more about the SDG Campus, and the exhibition features selected student projects relating to the SDGs.
Organisers: Franz Vergöhl, Sophie Heins, Marcus Steffens
Format: SDG Campus rally with information stand and exhibition
Meeting point: Information stand in the foyer on the 1st floor of the HCU
Language: German/English
No registration required.

Would you like to get creative with LEGO© bricks, build exciting structures and, at the same time, learn something about sustainable and reproducible research processes? Then join our hands-on workshop! Participants from all study programs and research fields are welcome. 
Organisers: Dr Ute von Lüpke, Dr Marta Lorenz
Format: Interactive workshop
Room: HVP-2.104
Language: English
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This talk will explain how we use LIBS technology to analyse building materials, what led us to develop our own research system, and how we implemented it.
Organiser: Marcus Illguth
Format: Talk
Room: HVP-1.017
Language: German
No registration required.

Experimental researchers from HCU will present their current research topics as part of a guided tour. At various stops along the route, experimental setups will be demonstrated and insights into different research topics provided. The session promotes interdisciplinary exchange and showcases the diversity of research at HCU.
Organisers: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tanja Skottke, Christian Grote
Format: Presentations and tour
Room: HVP-2.108
Language: German
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We introduce the concept of the sponge city and explain why it is a suitable approach for keeping cities liveable, even in the face of climate change. Starting from the global concept, we look at how the approach is being implemented through the RISA programme in Hamburg. We will demonstrate how the HCU is collaborating with the City of Hamburg on various pilot projects to test sponge city components and lay the groundwork for widespread implementation. In the second part, we will present ideas for projects being developed for the HCU campus during a guided tour.
Organisers: Dr Michael Richter, Prof. Dr-Ing. Wolfgang Dickhaut, Nadine Meiser, Paul Marschall, Sonja Schlipf
Format: Lectures and field trip (green roof, HCU campus)
Room: HVP-2.103
Language: German
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How do we want to live communally? In Hamburg, vacant office spaces are to be used for temporary accommodation – and communal living doesn’t just begin when people move in. To this end, students from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) developed participatory games during a seminar week under the guidance of Prof. Dr. i.V. Sabine Hansmann, vonwegenleer and games experts. These games help future residents to playfully explore conflicts, negotiation processes and shared rules even before they move in.
As part of the HCU im Dialog event, we invite you to a games afternoon to play through the living experience.
Organisers: Leona Erdmann, Juli Sottorf and Emma Stiehle
Format: Games afternoon
Room: HVP-2.106
Language: German
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A non-hierarchical organisation and the interconnection of various art forms. An attempt to put theory into practice without prior experience or capital. How do we create a platform for the new?
Organisers: Deen Hanif Graul
Format: Lecture
Room: HVP-2.109
Language: German/English
No registration required.

Research vessel DVocean – Sightseeing tours and Open Ship

HafenCity Universität operates its own research vessel, the DVocean, for teaching and scientific purposes. The aluminium vessel is approximately 8 metres long and 2.55 metres wide, making it trailerable and therefore easy to transport to more remote survey areas. The cabin can accommodate the skipper and six other people, with ample workspace available.

As part of HCU in Dialogue, you can get to know the vessel, both on the water and at the Martitimes Museum jetty.

Sightseeing trips (mornings):

Four slots between 10.30 am and 12.30 pm offer the chance to learn more about HCU’s research during a 30-minute trip through HafenCity. Six people can take part per trip; the starting point is the jetty at the Maritime Museum. The trips are subject to tide conditions.

Registration

Open Ship (afternoons):

From 13:00 to 15:00, the DVocean will be moored at the Maritime Museum jetty and open for viewing. HCU staff will be on hand to provide information on the ship’s research priorities and technical features. Participation in the Open Ship event is possible without registration.

Live coding with AI and digital methods: Create your own programme

11:00 - 14:00, open event: LED wall, HCU Café, ground floor

Turn your ideas into interactive games, creative apps and digital experiments! We warmly invite you to join us on 11 June at HCU im Dialog for our live coding sessions, where we’ll be exploring ‘Vibe Coding’.

During the session, you will:

  • learn the basics of programming through mini-projects
  • create your own games and interactive programmes
  • explore creative coding with visual elements, animations and user interaction
  • develop and experiment in a supportive, beginner-friendly environment
  • take home projects that you can continue to develop after the event

We will also be showcasing inspiring student projects from various courses, including Cybersecurity, Urban AI and Agentic Systems, Generative Design and the Art of Computation, as well as Architectural Intelligence and Computational Design.

Whether you have no programming experience at all or are looking for a fun way to explore creative technology – this workshop is all about learning through hands-on practice. Bring your curiosity, your laptop (if you like) and your own ideas – we’ll help you turn them into something interactive.

Language: English

Organisers: Prof. Dr Ayse Glass, Zahra Rostami

No registration required – just pop in between 11:00 and 14:00.

Internationalisation in action – study, exchange & opportunities at HCU

Open Information Fair I International Office I 11:30–16:30 pm I HCU Foyer, 1st floor

At this interactive format, HCU students (outgoings) and international exchange students (incomings) share insights from their study experiences. Visitors can explore projects, impressions and study cultures from partner universities worldwide – through visuals, short inputs and direct conversations.

The event includes:

  • Student perspectives on studying abroad and at HCU
  • Information on partner universities and exchange opportunities for students and staff
  • An info fair with the IO, AStA International and the Welcome Buddy Programme
  • A photo display: “From the very beginning – 20 years of the International Office at HCU”

Join us to discover international opportunities at HCU – from student exchange to staff mobility!