Festival/Hamburg Architecture Summer 2009.

FESTIVAL/Hamburg Architecture Summer 2009

Until 31 October,

various locations,

Hamburg, Germany

www.architektursommer.de

With money tight and touring blockbusters thin on the ground, Hamburg's 6th triennial Architecture Summer has resorted to curatorial and financial innovation. The slogan is 'Hamburg im Fluss', playing on the meaning of Fluss as both river (the river-[degrees]), and the fluidity of transformation. There may not be much liquidity, but conviviality, alcohol and food can be enjoyed almost every evening at 230 events, many of them with English texts.

The festival's themes are diverse, covering Hamburg's 2,500 bridges, sustainability for earthquake zones, 'Euroislam', Bauhaus-influenced churches by Otto Bartning, gentrification in the city, architecture as social engineering (as planned for Hamburg IBA building exhibition in 2013], a retrospective of 1970s office parks and the demise of traditional warehouses in the Speicherstadt, which have lost their special status in the wake of the new HafenCity district.

Architectural criticism is rare, however, and mostly exercised by photographers or artists. Parade of the Architects is a group of life-size, male sculptures by Frank Leske; Bremen College art students show The Heritage of Calcutta, a photo-report on the Bengali capital's ruins; Scareways by Dirk Dunkelberg and Elke Walford, and Parkhauser und Tiefgaragen by Felix Borkenau all document the dark side of planning.

The Architecture Summer's two bookended exhibitions, both at the Kunsthaus city gallery, are emblematic of the widening gap between urban poverty and the bijou outposts of architecture for wealthier elites. Portraits from Above ... (AR July 2009) documents high-rise slum squatting, while an expensively staged spectacle of the works of French star Dominique Perrault will open in September - a surprise bonbon only announced at the festival opening.

While all the other festival events have had to rely on sponsorship and goodwill, rumour has it that the Perrault show was secured with a six-figure subsidy. Could this be an overture to the future announcement of an even bigger bonbon - a Perrault project for Hamburg? LAYLA DAWSON

+ Hamburg won't let a little old economic crisis get in the way of a good festival

- Will the real architects please stand up (and critique something)

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