L'Elbphilharmonie di Amburgo: riflessi espressionisti

On January 11th, 2017 Elbphilharmonie Hamburg was inaugurated, being a multipurpose building beside the River Elbe, on Grasbrook Island in HafenCity district. This area nowadays is a subject of urban and architectural redevelopment after being simply a port storage area. The Philharmonic is born from the restoration of a brick warehouse, the Kaispeicher A, built in the '60s, and from its elevation with a glass structure with a corrugated roof. The architects Herzog & De Meuron, used to recover brick buildings (Tate Modern in London (2000) and its expansion (2016), Caixa Forum Madrid (2008)), have breathed the "genius loci" of German Expressionism into the forms and the crystalline materials of Elbphilharmonie's elevation. Expressionist seems also the structure of the large concert hall and the building's skyline. This article compares expressionist achievements and ideas with the architecture built by Herzog & De Meuron who, consciously or not, have incorporated those suggestions.