The HafenCity University Hamburg was founded by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on January 1, 2006 as a university for architecture and spatial development through the merger of four departments from three Hamburg universities.We started a public debate on the pressing questions, which relate to development, design and the future of our built world so that the opportunities offered by the foundation of such a specialised university can really be benefited from. We want to get to the bottom of the education and research topics of our specialist fields, develop our own strengths within these specific fields, define innovative topics and methods for our future interdisciplinary orientation as well as develop interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education and research fields. Together we want to develop new approaches to the problems of our cities in the 21st century.