Poster of the Hamburg Philharmonic designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The Philharmonic was constructed on the site of an old imperial warehouse used at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries for storing tea, tobacco, and cocoa. New levels were built over the preserved fragment of the old warehouse. The building's form resembles a sail caught in the wind or water agitated during a storm. Such associations are fully justified in reference to Hamburg, Germany's largest port.