München (DE)

Inhabited milieu's challenges

The metropolis of Munich, Germany’s third-largest city, wants to be climate-neutral by 2035. A major challenge is to cope with the pressure of growth on the one hand and climate change on the other. Munich is trying to meet this by increasing the density of its inner city. One of the largest urban development areas in Europe is located in the north of Munich and in the immediate vicinity of the Europan site. The former Bavarian barracks are being transformed into a mixed-use quarter for about 15,000 inhabitants called «Neufreimann».
The competition area is located in the Europark commercial area and is to be sensibly integrated into the urban development context between the future Neufreimann quarter, the commercial areas with cultural uses to the east and the purely commercial uses adjoining it to the west and south. The Europan task is to develop forward-looking ideas for the redensification or redevelopment of the existing commercial area into a mixed, urban, productive and lively urban site.
As a «resilient hybrid urbanism», the site is to serve as a pilot for considerations on hybrid spaces. The aim is to achieve a mix of uses for different types of housing and commercial typologies: we are looking for innovative solutions for the coexistence or superimposition of commercial and residential uses.
The commercial and specialist market location is to be further developed in a space-efficient manner and additional mixed uses such as offices and housing are to be created. The aim is to achieve a high urban density with a simultaneous high quality of greening.
In conjunction with the urban planning idea, a concise open space system with public, communal and private green spaces and pathways with a high quality of stay is to be created. The overall goal is to develop a sustainable, climate-neutral and climate-sensitive neighbourhood.

Questions to the competitors

What does it mean to redensify an existing commercial area in the city centre of a metropolis in a future-oriented way? How does it become a mixed, liveable, lively, urban and productive urban development?
What building typologies are needed? Are there high-rise buildings? What does the ground floor zone look like? What will happen on the roofs? Who will live here? Who can work here? What cultural and social uses will there be? Will office, administration, service, production, processing and crafts come together with residential use? Can the existing buildings be preserved in terms of sustainability and integrated into the overall concept? How can the combination of residential and commercial be rethought? On top of each other? Next to each other? One inside the other? One after the other? With each other? What could be flexible uses?
What could a hybrid, resilient urban development look like in the existing context? The goal is a climate-neutral and resilient neighbourhood with different uses and an attractive green and open space system. What do concise public open spaces with a high quality of stay look like? How private and how communal (green) spaces?
Where does climate protection and adaptation take place? What is needed in terms of construction so that synergies can be created between ecological, social, economic and cultural aspects? What will happen in the long term in the area under consideration? What is specifically proposed for the project site? In which development phases could the realisation take place? How can pedestrian and bicycle traffic be strengthened? How does the neighbourhood link up with its surroundings? How will I get to the Isar and the English Garden in the future?