Deichtorhallen Hamburg

Brief information

Deichtorhallen occupies halls that were built not for art, but as a covered market on the site of the former Berlin railway station in Hamburg. Because of this, the exhibition space reads not as a neutral gallery, but as a repurposed industrial shell: large volumes, steel structures, and two independent buildings have become part of the museum experience.

Since 1989, two main venues have operated here: the northern Halle für aktuelle Kunst for contemporary art and the southern Haus der Photographie for photography. An important shift in the perception of the place is tied precisely to this change of function: the buildings from the transitional period between Art Nouveau and 20th-century architecture preserved the scale of a market, but that scale is now used by exhibitions, often created specifically for the hall.

What to notice right away

It makes sense to compare the two buildings as a pair, rather than seeing them only as a gallery address. The northern hall is described as an elongated three-section building with an area of 3,800 m²: this form explains why large solo projects by artists, sculptors, and designers work well here. The southern hall is smaller, symmetrical, and has a lantern; it is there that the House of Photography was placed, where the architecture works not only for volume, but also for a distinct museum function.

A common detail of both buildings is the exposed steel structure. It links the current exhibitions with the former market purpose and shows why Deichtorhallen is considered a rare surviving example of industrial architecture from this transitional period. Here it is more useful to notice not the decoration, but the frame, the proportions, and the difference between the northern and southern halls.