BIG designs terraced opera house 'emanating like soundwaves' in Hamburg

Bjarke Ingels Group has won an international competition to design the new Hamburg State Opera. The 450,000-square-foot scheme will be located on the Baakenhöft peninsula in HafenCity and will replace the city’s current 1950s opera house on Dammtorstraße. The new venue is intended to meet contemporary acoustic, spatial, and technical requirements while strengthening the cultural presence along Hamburg’s waterfront.

The proposal positions the opera as a public building within a landscaped park. The terraced form of the opera rises from the water’s edge, with a circular roofscape that opens toward the harbor. The stepped topography creates new public paths, elevated gardens, and gathering spaces, forming a pedestrian link between the city and the river.

Multiple entry points connect the building to its surroundings, including routes through the park, from the pier, and via an “opera street” near Baakenhafenbrücke. Inside, a large foyer with timber staircases serves as a central hub, while each main level provides access to outdoor terraces.

The main hall features curved balconies and timber-lined surfaces designed to support even sound distribution. Additional facilities include a studio stage, rehearsal spaces, and back-of-house areas arranged to streamline artist circulation.

“The new Hamburg State Opera inhabits an island at the heart of HafenCity bookended by the vertical landmarks of Elbturm and Elbphilharmonie,” Bjarke Ingels said about the scheme. “The opera will appear like a landscape of concentric terraces – emanating like soundwaves from a central beating heart of music, expanding outward into the harbor like ripples on the surface of the sea.”

“The result is a three-dimensional public park open and accessible from all sides, with expansive views in all directions – to the old city and the new, to Lohse Park and the industrial port,” Ingels added. “We are honored to have been chosen to imagine this key puzzle piece in the transformation of Hamburg’s HafenCity, and we are deeply grateful to Herr und Frau Kühne to be entrusted to turn their generosity into the city’s new epicenter for the performing arts.”