Pop-Up Circular Hub

From April to December 2024, the Pop-Up Circular Hub (PUCH) in the former Karstadt Sport (Jupiter) on Mönckebergstraße will be a hub for circular economy activities in Hamburg, offering workshops, panel discussions, exhibitions, advice and a co-working space.

Exhibition, Events, Workshops and Educational Offers

The exhibition, together with the parallel events, is a place for information about and networking between circular economy players in Hamburg. The exhibition will give you an overview of what the circular economy means and you can discover what is happening in Hamburg to establish a circular economy using examples, research approaches and projects.

The exhibition also invites you to contribute your own ideas and questions!

The exhibition is organized by Fab City Hamburg e.V., the Hamburg Institute for Innovation, Climate Protection and Circular Economy GmbH, Hafen City University, the Senate Chancellery and the New Production Institute of Helmut Schmidt University.

Click here to have a look at the program of last year’s 3-week exhibition.

Events

There are currently several events a month taking place in the hub. Further information can be found on the respective event pages:

Re-Opening of the Pop-Up Circular Hub

On April 30, the PUCH was opened as part of a World Circular Economy Forum 2024 side event. Various presentations and panel discussions were held. This video captures a few impressions of the day:

What is Circular Economy and why do we need it?

Around 50% of global CO2 emissions and more than 90% of biodiversity loss are directly or indirectly attributable to the extraction and processing of raw materials! We therefore need to rethink our current production and consumption patterns if we want to counteract climate change and biodiversity loss.

The concept of the circular economy has been discussed and promoted as a solution for many years. Recently, the EU has given this vision new impetus as part of the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, and the German government is also working on a national circular economy strategy. This will set a decisive course for our future economy!

Some of the many challenges that we will be addressing and discussing at PUCH:

We live in a overconsumption society and waste too many resources! How can we improve this economically and individually?
Long transportation routes have a high CO2 footprint and pose increasingly higher risks for the economy and the environment. How and what can we produce locally?
Products are (usually) designed in such a way that they end up as waste! Can we avoid this through circular design?
Companies are major contributors to environmental problems. How can circular economy strategies help them to operate more sustainably?

Gallery

Talk: Circular City Planning

On May 14, 2024, Britta Peters, partner in PUCH on the part of the HiiCCE Institute, gave the lecture series on the climate crisis at Students for Future Hamburg. The lecture was recorded and can be watched here:

Project Partners

The “Pop-Up Circular Hub” is an exhibition and series of events organized by Fab City Hamburg e.V., the Hamburg Institute for Innovation, Climate Protection and Circular Economy GmbH, the New Production Institute, the Senate Chancellery and Hafen-City University.

Hamburg Institute for Innovation, Climate Protection and Circular Economy GmbH

The HiiCCE Institute is a research institute affiliated with the Hamburg University of Technology and is also a subsidiary of Stadtreinigung Hamburg. The institute develops holistic solutions for the global challenges of climate protection and the circular and resource economy and conducts research into various areas of the circular economy.

Fab City Hamburg e. V.

In June 2019, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg became the first German city to join the global Fab Cities Alliance. It has thus taken on the challenge of converting the urban economy to a comprehensive, digitally supported circular economy: Hamburg will then be able to produce (almost) everything that is consumed in the city itself. Fab City Hamburg e.V. was founded in 2020 to institutionalize the Fab City in Hamburg. It is funded by the Ministry of Economics and Innovation. The association publicizes the idea of the Fab City, supports its development and documents its progress.

New Production Institute

The New Production Institute emerged from the interdisciplinary research group Value Creation Systems of the Laboratory of Production Engineering at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg. As a think tank for the future of value creation and production, the experts at the New Production Institute are involved in various projects dealing with the transformation of value creation systems against the backdrop of new possibilities for networking and production in times of digital transformation. The focus is particularly on the operationalization of openness in new modes of value creation (open innovation, open design, open production and open source).

Senatskanzlei, Referat Europapolitik

The European Policy Division of the Senate Chancellery deals with European law issues and EU funding programs. The unit’s team coordinates EU projects focusing on the circular economy, mobility and climate adaptation. In the DECISO project, ten partners from five countries are researching funding opportunities for circular economy ideas. The KARMA project focuses on sustainable construction. Seven partners from five countries are exchanging ideas on circular policy instruments in the construction sector. www.hamburg.de/europa

Die HafenCity Universität Hamburg | University of Architecture and Metropolitan Development (HCU) is a university that focuses on the built environment. The HCU combines all aspects of construction in design and drafting, engineering and natural sciences as well as humanities and social sciences under one roof. The HCU’s overarching research priorities are climate/sustainability and digitalization. Among other things, the HCU is involved in the development process of the national circular economy strategy.