Wunderkammer: German for ‘cabinet of curiosities’

The project is for a new Alibaba Group headquarters in Speicherstadt Warehouse District in Hamburg, Germany. It is equipped with its own futuristic logistic warehouse (basement) and Expo market (above ground) which is open to the public. The design reinterprets traditional Chinese timber architecture as Vierendeel truss walls and timber mega cores, creating a new design within the existing building parameters, whilst retaining the Warehouse District’s original neo-Gothic brick façades.

The project’s brief was a result of in-depth research into the urban development of modern port cities, and the global capital flow port cities are so dependent on. The research concluded that Alibaba Group would consequentially anchor in Hamburg through the New Silk Road initiative, while the port of Hamburg handles Alibaba’s global logistics.