The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has won an international competition to design the new Hamburg State Opera as part of its major cultural project planned for the Baakenhöft peninsula.

The competition was made by the authorities and members of parliament in Hamburg, Germany and unanimously selected BIG’s proposal.

This new building will replace the mid-20th-century opera house on Dammtorstraße, and consolidate the city’s opera and ballet companies under one building.

The proposed plan will see the venue situated on an island structure featuring terraced green roofs and will introduce new production, rehearsal, and performance spaces.

Chaired by Stefan Behnisch, the competition jury included Dr. Carsten Brosda, Dr. Jörg Dräger, Katharina Fegebank, Karl Gerandt, Franz-Josef Höing, Dr. Andreas Kleinau, Tobias Kratzer, Dorte Mandrup, Karen Pein, Matthias Sauerbruch, Dr. Thomas Staehelin, and Günther Vogt.

In statement, Bjarke Ingels, founder and creative director of BIG said, “The new Hamburg State Opera inhabits an island at the heart of HafenCity bookended by the vertical landmarks of Elbphilharmonie and Elbtower. The opera will appear like a landscape of concentric terraces – emanating like soundwaves from a central beating heart of music, expanding outward into the harbour like ripples on the surface of the sea,” he continued. “We are honoured to have been chosen to imagine this key puzzle piece of the transformation of Hamburg’s Haven City, and we are deeply grateful to the Kühne Foundation for entrusting us with turning their generosity into the city’s new epicentre for the performing arts.”

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