welcome to the new episode of gerrit's diary. our nights are becoming longer - and our eyes smaller when we go outside and see daylight. we wish to complete the hafencity and the elbe philharmonic hall by november, so let's see how far we have actually come. we will stroll through the hafencity and enter the elbe philharmonic hall to compare our progress to theirs. which details are complete, what didn't make the cut? where is it perhaps even better than the original? sven and stefan will tell us all about it later. okay, let's go!
this is a great spot to explain our golden ratio. we had to compress a few things, because we never have enough space. in the end, the hafencity is supposed to appear realistic but it should also look very interesting. so you had to cut, trim, shorten and expand a few things. but you can explain that better than i could. if you look at this from the front: we have the bascule bridge, but the htt 74-77 is almost gone. then we axed the next two buildings. we swapped the h2o with the china shipping building,
canceled the one in between and then we have already reached the edge of our fascia. we had some troubles with the floor heights as our figurines are 1:87 while all of our buildings are on a scale of 1:120. it was a challenge to make the proportions appear to be correct and to compress the buildings in a way that the figurines fit on this small groundplan in 1:120, even though they are 1:87. that sounds harsh but it was very difficult. we thought hard about how to make the hafencity appear realistic to the visitor. which buildings are left out, which ones are so similar, that we need only one of them?
we look up at houses from the ground, but the visitor in the wunderland looks down from above. that's why we had to make the houses smaller, so they appear to be more realistic. the hafencity offers a lot of variety, just like our weather today - it's raining. at the end of the episode we'll take a few minutes to compare the real world with our recreation. we will also show these walls. they don't look all too complicated but it was rather difficult. but you can explain that better than me.- alright! what we see here is the so-called fish wall. we tried to come up with a way to make it look like the original. at first, we wanted to make a spray template and use an airbrush technique.
but then tina had the idea to use automobile bodywork filler and smear it into the template, and we would have embossed fishes on the wall. the fishes were then airbrushed to make them look more like they are in reality. these railings are typical for the hafencity. just as with our airport, the railings proved to be quite the challenge. every little piece is built and then put together, but we are always pleased with the result because distinctive railings have a high recognition value. the same applies to these terraces that you had to build because we wanted to have them. you can see here:
we don't have the same height offset as in the real hafencity. however, we still built these terraces, complete with these steps to sit on and the trees and their oval or elliptical plots. there are many small details in this area - the benches, this paving - we tried to implement most of these things that you also find in reality. let's see how far they have come with the real elbe philharmonic hall. we are in the final phases, there is still a lot to do, but i believe they have even more to do. let's take a look.
here we are, i can't wait to see it. what interests you the most? we had the most trouble with the opening and closing of our facade. i'd really like to see how the real joints look like. our opening mechanism shows the interior concert hall. let's see how they solved it. this is the first spot where we are definitely better off. our escalator is finished, even the lighting is already done. this small detail helps us to explain how
extensive the work steps are to achieve something like this. we had to adapt to our circumstances and change a few things. again, the scaling was a challenge because we have a different height. our figurines shouldn't lose their torso when using the ecalator. the escalator is curved instead of straight. so we had to scale a curve, just as with the tube. we made fast progress after we overcame the scaling problems and we built it piece by piece and even snuck a few hidden details in there. we didn't use filler for our tube but lined it with foil,
and thus prevented future stress fractures. there is also this beautiful panorama view up the escalator. fortunately the sun has come out, now that we are on the roof of the elbe philharmonic hall. there has been some immense progress made. i thought we would be much further ahead of the original, but they are hot on our heels. the development of the roof was a long journey. i'm anxious to hear your story. at first we thought: we are going to be much faster because ours is smaller and more simple. we had the idea to insert a cardboard model
that we would line with cloth and then mould with grp. and after we had done that the work really begun. now we had to sand, smooth, sand, smooth. then we applied an intermediate coating but still, we weren't satisfied. so we had to remove the paint again, and sand and smooth once more and then adjust it. we might finish just before they do, perhaps.
let's look for the mechanism where the facade opens in order to see the concert hall from outside. it has to be here somewhere. there it is! that's the column. and it is eight steps from here? the aluminium profile must be here somewhere. where can it be? two floors down, you say? this will never work with a push of a button if they don't hurry up. this might be one of the joints but...
there would have to be a gap here, wouldn't it? it seems to be marked here, but i can't see anything on the concrete. then it must be two floors beneath us, but i doubt we'll see something there either. we'll look anyway, but i believe we are closer to completion than they are. great view, but i can't see the gap for the opening mechanism. i'd say they left it out. and that means we have a unique selling point! it was a great day here on the construction site. it's always fascinating how things are planned and then implemented.
there are so many details here that one would not think about otherwise. it may haven taken a while but the result is simply fascinating. i hope our own hafencity will also be fascinating in a similar way. we will keep you up to date in future episodes. although: there won't be that many because we want to be finished by november. thank you for watching, i'm looking forward to the next episode. bye!