Performing real estate value: The Elbtower and the politics of the future

Dasha Kuletskaya

No 25-7, MPIfG Discussion Paper from Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Abstract: What is the source of real estate value? In this paper, I trace the development of the Elbtower skyscraper in Hamburg - from its origins in the 1997 architectural vision for HafenCity to the construction halt following the 2023 insolvency of the Signa Group. Through an analysis of the "political dramaturgy" (Oomen, Hoffman, and Hajer 2022) behind the development, I argue that real estate value is not an inherent metric rooted in objective material characteristics, but is instead "performed" (Callon 1998) through the strategic management of stakeholders' "imagined futures" (Beckert 2016). In this process, the symbolic power of iconic architecture plays a crucial role, enabling developers to bypass conventional valuation methods based on market comparison and claim monopoly on the "rent of form" (Arantes 2019). In the paper, I show that imaginaries of urban future that are produced by architects and planners function as market devices - discursive assemblages mobilized by powerful stakeholders to socially construct real estate value. In conclusion, I argue that the performance of real estate value is ultimately a political project, in which state actors play a central role.

Keywords: Elbtower; iconic architecture; imagined futures; performativity; real estate value; ikonische Architektur; imaginierte Zukunft; Immobilienwert; Performativität (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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