The Elbphilharmonie is a concert hall in the German city of Hamburg. The Elbphilharmonie is located on the right bank of the river Elbe in the HafenCity district in the Hamburg-Mitte district. The orchestra in residence is the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the ensemble in residence is the Ensemble Resonanz.
The building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is based on an older warehouse, Kaispeicher A, a former warehouse for cocoa, tea and tobacco, on which a glass-finished superstructure with a curved roof shape was realized. The 26-storey building has Kaispeicher A cladding from the ground floor to the sixth floor. The new building was given a glass façade with a total of 1,096 individual glass elements, many of which are curved and curved differently, at a unit cost of 20,000 euros. For optimum sun protection and other design reasons, each of the approximately 2200 segments was also printed with a unique pattern. According to the architects, this creates the impression of a gigantic crystal, in which the sky, the water and the city are always reflected differently.
The building has clearly become a landmark in the Hamburg horizon, on the river and near the city centre. It lies on Kaiserhöft, the pierhead between the former docks of Sandtorhafen and Grasbrookhafen, and thus on the westernmost point of HafenCity.