Social Guest House Villa Viva, Hamburg, Germany


The new Villa Viva high-rise building is a guest house for social encounters, arts and networking in Hamburg's Münzviertel district, not far from the main train station. It is a social business project, a joint venture between Heimathafen Hotels and the non-profit organization Viva con Agua. A minimum of 40% of all profits is to go to the WASH-projects , which advocate for clean drinking water and sanitary facilities around the world since 2006. It also houses the offices of Viva con Agua: “The house that builds wells”.
The new headquarters for Viva con Agua, with offices and an adjoining restaurant including a conference and catering area, is intended as a meeting place with no social boundaries, but as a “hotspot for creativity” and for integration through cooperation in the neighborhood.
The project specifically focuses on aspects of sustainability and ecology. Complicated mechanization is deliberately avoided. Recycled materials are used wherever possible, and recycled concrete and CO2-reduced concrete are used for non-load-bearing elements. The windows are made of aluminum, as are the vertical slats of the sun protection, with a high proportion of recycled material. The greenery around the façade on the first floor and the individual plant troughs, which are supplied by a drip irrigation system, have a positive effect on the urban climate. Rainwater is used to water the plants. There are water-saving shower systems and, in some cases, toilets flush using wastewater from the sink. Very good thermal insulation, windows with triple thermal insulation glazing and a façade design that provides adequate solar shading reduce the need for heating and cooling. In particular, the workplaces also offer a high quality of daylight, which minimizes the need for artificial lighting. Concrete core activation ensures excellent thermal comfort all year round almost everywhere.
A heat pump is mainly used as a chiller and its waste heat is utilized. A considerable proportion of Villa Viva's energy requirements is used to heat the domestic hot water, which is necessary all year round. Here, an important element supports the energy and climate concept by capturing solar heat: a solar thermal system. This requires a buffer storage tank. For this project, the design team deliberately decided not to install the storage tank discreetly, but to place it visibly in the atrium. It refers to the environmentally friendly technology in the building and is a sign that it is possible and meaningful to install such a system in a mixed-use building in the city center.
The Villa Viva achieves the KfW55 efficiency house standard in combination with district heating.