Hamburg, February 16, 2021.
HafenCity will be enriched by a new living concept: POHA House is coming to Hamburg and will open its Cospaces in the ecological construction project Moringa at Baakenhafen. Germany’s first high-rise residential building, which will be built in line with the Cradle-2-Cradle principle, is scheduled to open in summer 2024. POHA House will take over the entire second of a total of three components with around 4,600 square meters of rental space.
In total, around 15,500 square meters of rental space will be created at Moringa. The majority will be reserved for residential use, 30 percent of which will be publicly subsidized. A daycare center and space for restaurants and coworking are also planned. POHA House is now the first tenant. The young real estate start-up offers communal living in high-quality furnished apartments, flexible office space and shared leisure activities under one roof. Target groups include young people who have just moved to the city and are interested in making new contacts, as well as people living in the city temporarily for professional reasons, commuters and companies looking for housing for their new employees.
“Living at POHA House focuses on beautiful experiences and community spirit. We create community spaces and also let the Moringa’s green roof terraces become a meeting place,” says Lea Hermanns. “In this way, we clearly differ from the concept of so-called micro apartments,” the co-founder of POHA House continues. “We form numerous shared apartments, which is the opposite of urban loneliness.” In total, POHA House in Hamburg brings together 104 rooms to form 24 three- to five-person apartments. In addition, there are 24 studios.
A concept that also convinces the operators of Moringa: “POHA is a super addition to our residential concept, but also a very important neighborhood component for HafenCity,” says Moringa Managing Director Vanja Schneider. And an ecologically sensible one that limits land consumption: The need for owner-occupied living space is reduced because apartment residents share a kitchen and living room and do not need either a study or guest room. Visitors can be accommodated in a total of ten short-stay apartments, which are just as much part of the POHA concept as the 570-square-meter Coworking space, which can become a home office.
This also results in significant added value for the other residents of the Moringa as well as the entire neighborhood, says Vanja Schneider. This is because both the visitor apartments and event rooms with large kitchens for birthday parties and many services that can be booked via the POHA app are open to all Moringa residents. The Coworking is also opening up to other users, such as startups and companies from outside the area. “Especially the possibility for our tenants to book additional rooms as needed serves our sustainability concept in a special way,” says Vanja Schneider. “They can also do without guest rooms or study rooms. Ultimately, this leads to a reduction in individual living space requirements, but the usable space is still larger than the lease specifies.”
The Moringa project meets HafenCity’s high standards of innovation and sustainability in several respects, says Dr. Andreas Kleinau, Managing Director of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH: “It convinces with its sophisticated ecological and resource-saving building concept. POHA House complements this project with an innovative real estate concept featuring sought-after sharing economy offerings that combine living, working and community under one roof. On the first floor of the building, offers for gastronomy, retail and a daycare center also make an important contribution to a lively neighborhood.”
The POHA concept also fits in very well with Moringa’s ecological and healthy approach because the interior design and furnishings include many natural and health-promoting materials. In addition, future users will be motivated to save energy by being able to read their consumption transparently via app in the future and compare it with previous consumption. In addition to the lease agreement, the two companies have therefore agreed on a strategic partnership that will enable them to work together on future projects if it suits both of them.
Moringa GmbH is 100 percent dedicated to the development of healthy and sustainable real estate and neighborhoods. Cradle-2-Cradle, or the principle of circular economy and recycling, is a core element of this. Moringa Hamburg HafenCity on construction site 105 at Baakenhafen is the company’s first project. Like POHA House, Moringa is closely associated with Landmarken AG of project developer Norbert Hermanns and his family. Moringa Hamburg is being realized in a particularly sustainable manner using recyclable materials and offers more green space than the built-up area has square meters. In a hitherto unique way, the project combines sustainable construction and affordable living for families, couples, young people and seniors in a prime location.
For POHA House Holding GmbH, Moringa Hamburg is the third location after projects currently under construction in Aachen and Essen. “The connection between life, sustainability and well-being has never been so important. Together with Moringa, we want to set standards for the construction and use of buildings that positively improve our communities,” says Yianni Tsitouras, CEO of the young company. The company is already looking beyond Hamburg: “We’re looking for locations in major cities across Europe where we can build more POHA Houses.”
