Europe’s largest inner-city urban development area as a blueprint for the new European city on the waterfront: In developing a new urban area on the Elbe, Hamburg is setting new standards in Europe and beyond as an ambitious integrated urban development, answering both local needs and global requirements. On an area of 157 ha, a lively city with a maritime feel is taking shape, combining workplace and residential uses, education, culture and leisure, tourism and retailing – in a way that is quite unlike downtowns dominated by offices and shops. HafenCity Hamburg GmbH is responsible for four major urban delevopment areas in Hamburg: HafenCity, Billebogen, Grasbrook and Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld. This extensive task calls for strong interaction and coalescence between conception and realisation. In addition to its financing responsibility, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH also clears and prepares sites, plans and builds public spaces as well as infrastructure, acquires and contracts real estate developers and users, and is responsible for public relations and communication. At the same time, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH opens up pathways to innovation in urban development, especially relating to urbanity and sustainability. Sustainability aspects include innovative heat supply, a purpose-built sustainability certification scheme for buildings and sustainable mobility concepts, but also flood protection and the development of an altogether sustainable urban structure. HafenCityHamburg GmbH can call on a very broad range of expertise in its task of integrated urban development: staff come from the fields of engineering, urban planning, land development, economics, cultural studies, humanities and social sciences, geography and landscape architecture. They cooperate closely and, starting from land areas initially owned by the city, seek to follow the principle of value creation in building the city of tomorrow.