Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel comprise outstanding examples of types of buildings and ensembles that reflect the consequences of the rapid growth of international trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Their high-quality designs and functional constructions in the guise of historicism and modernism respectively make them an extraordinary ensemble of maritime warehouses and modernist office buildings. Speicherstadt is the largest unified historic port warehouse complex in the world: a “City of Warehouses”. The Kontorhausviertel is a contiguous, densely built-up area, characterised by eight predominantly very large office complexes. These neighbouring, mono-functional quarters form an excellent example of a combined warehouse-office district.