Cruise Center
The planning and building of the Cruise Center Baakenhöft creates a new temporary cruise terminal in HafenCity that welcomed its first travelers in July 2020.
With the start of construction of southern Überseequartiers and investor Unibail Rodamco Westfield’s corresponding need for space, the previous temporary Cruise Center HafenCity (Terminal 1) at Chicagokai was decommissioned at the end of June 2020 as a cruise location. Until completion of the new Hamburg Cruise Center HafenCity as part of southern Überseequartier and beyond for a period of at least ten years, a new temporary cruise terminal was planned and built at Baakenhöft. It went into service on July 1, 2020. When not in use for cruise ship operations, Cruise Center Baakenhöft can be hired for special events and celebrations.
Cruise Center Baakenhöft’s primary function is the handling of cruise ships. Outside these times, the Cruise Center Baakenhöft terminal building’s approx. 800 m² reception hall is an exceptional platform for special events and festivities such as corporate functions, galas, conferences, trade fairs and cultural events (capacity up to 700 people).
The terminal at Baakenhöft was commissioned by HafenCity Hamburg GmbH from Andreas Wagener Architekten of Hamburg and planned and built in the period October 2018 to the end of June 2020. The building, designed as a single-story hall in hot-dip galvanized steel skeleton construction, has a floor area of around 1,000 square meters with a length of 68.5 meters and a width of 15.5 meters. Cruise Center Baakenhöft in HafenCity was the first building in Germany to be constructed to the R30 fire safety standard through hot-dip galvanizing. The architectural concept for the reception hall features an impressive exterior with a striking steel caisson façade. Inside the terminal is light and airy. The expansive windows of the terminal, situated in the direct vicinity of growing eastern HafenCity, draw the eyes of visitors towards the Elbe and Hamburg’s port.