Hammerbrooklyn Box Hamburg

We’ve seen it around the world, innovation ecosystems popping up in the spirit of California’s Silicon Valley and intended to spur industry, technology, and entrepreneurship. In Hamburg, Germany, a local take on this idea is called the Hammerbrooklyn Digital Campus.

Named after the Hammerbrook district of the city where it is located, the digital campus is intended to be a European center of gravity for futurism and the prototype city of tomorrow. Over the coming years, the campus will grow to include several buildings including the repurposed USA Pavilion from Milan’s EXPO 2015. To get started building the campus, the leaders of Hammerbrooklyn turned to shipping containers.

Specifically, they chose to repurpose what was originally Platoon’s Kunsthalle Berlin. This popular shipping container building was looking for a new home due to an expired land lease in Berlin. And the rest, they say, is history.

With a new coat of bright green paint and some slight interior changes, the Kunsthalle was transformed in the Hammerbrooklyn Box. The Box is intended as a temporary home for now while other facilities are being constructed, so we’re not sure what its long-term future holds.

Most of the same features from its prior use are still there. The main change, other than color, is the second-floor interior. Originally, the second floor was only made up of a small loft looking over the bar area below. Now, the second floor is as large as the 3rd, forming a large work area with tables and chairs.

The finished space is used for everything from town halls to coworking to maker spaces. Groups of researchers, business people, thinkers, and innovators can work together on interdisciplinary teams to solve challenging problems confronting the digital future.