Design of underpasses
Oberbillwerder, Hamburg
mit Day&Light Lichtplanung
Name
Oberbillwerder
Client
Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg
Program
Underpass
Location
Hamburg
Project
2025
Status
project
Parcel
–
Area
ca. 800 m2
Footprint
ca. 800 m2
Our idea is ultimately quite simple:
We don’t add anything new or extra – apart from subtle interventions at the tunnel mouths. Instead, we simply bring out what is already there by boldly applying color and enhancing it with a well-considered lighting concept. In doing so, we create clear, fear-free spaces of distinct geometry for pedestrians and cyclists, while cars merely pass through the peaty brown marshland…
We draw the colors from the natural surroundings of Oberbillwerder. From the impressionistic shimmer and flicker of the landscape, we extract a palette that, in abstracted form, will define the design of the underpasses: a watery blue, the blooming orange of vigorous grasses and iron oxide, and the peaty brown-black of the moor and marsh.
Each tunnel develops its own identity through color — a dialogue and coexistence of moor brown (we imagine it like the shell of a chestnut found beneath melting snow after a long winter), watery blue, and vibrant orange-yellow. The deep moor black subtly enhances the luminosity of the other two and creates clear spatial zones for all users of the space.
The perception of an underpass is defined above all by light. Accordingly, the quality of lighting is held to no lesser standard than that of a museum or an art installation. During the day, despite the high contrast between the brightness outside and the dimness within, and again in the evening, the interplay of form, texture, color, and light ensures a positive experience – something far beyond the purely functional act of passing through a railway embankment.
Continuous light bands are positioned at the spatial interfaces of the tunnel. They provide a soft and warm illumination, emphasizing contrasts and material transitions, while gently dissolving the inner space into light and form. These light bands are fitted with longitudinal louvered diffusers to reduce glare.
In the western pedestrian tunnel, the concept of the active city is casually, yet meaningfully, expressed through the inclusion of an integrated bouldering space, among other features.
