“So it does work!” – Munich factory quarter exhibition

Urban development in Germany today – not many positive things come to mind. Although recent urban development projects are advertised with buzzwords such as urban, dense and lively, in reality they turn out to be sprawling, monofunctional wastelands with dead first floor zones. Planning, investment and sales have to be made quickly. There are numerous examples of these shortcomings, not least the former Deutsche Bahn railway tracks in cities such as Munich or Stuttgart or the Europaviertel in Berlin.

But there are positive examples. They may be few and far between, but they caught the eye of the jury for the German Urban Development Award. On show in an exhibition entitled “It does work!” in the Werksviertel district of Munich. The occasion is the arrival in Munich of the traveling exhibition of the German Urban Design Award 2023, which was presented in Berlin last May. Prize winners, awards and commendations are presented on display boards. The first prize winner is the Munich Werksviertel itself. The exhibition is particularly worth seeing because it also gives an impression of the past, present and future of the award-winning district with photos and several models. There are also finds from the district to discover, such as old neon signs, a disco ball and a potato sorter. And all this right in the middle of the area, in MVRDV’s “Werk12” on “Knödelplatz”.

It all began on the 40-hectare former Pfanni, Zündapp and Optimol factory site, continued as “Kunstpark Ost”, supposedly the largest club mile in Europe, and now the former Munich dingy corner has even become a model for other urban developments.

Johannes Ernst from Steidle Architekten, who provided the master plan, leads us through the exhibition and explains the reasons for its success: it was the step-by-step planning that was exceptionally possible and which still offers scope today. Among other things, it was possible to inspire the owners of the existing buildings as well as the existing facilities – without taking a dogmatic approach – and to focus on a maximum mix of uses. Johannes Ernst believes it is important to allow the new to grow between the existing “bit by bit, from the inside out”. It is best to create hybrid buildings for as many different users as possible. The extended former dumpling factory, “Werk3”, transformed into offices, stores and studios, serves as an eloquent illustration of the recipe, converted by Steidle Architekten. The large canopy draws the eye to the colorful mix in the first floor zone; not a single chain store is present. There are around 60 different tenants throughout the building.

Equally exemplary is the “Werk4” potato silo, now a hostel, hotel and climbing center with impressive heights. On the initiative of Steidle Architekten, MVRDV, Snøhetta, Hild + K, Nieto Sobejano, Graft and Nuyken von Oefele were also involved.

The exhibition shows how the quarter continues to change. Hotels have now been added, a business area and two residential courtyards are being built, and the concert hall by Vorarlberg architects Cukrowicz Nachbaur is also due to be built soon. The adjectives urban, dense and lively really do apply here – the wonderful mix of people, their activities and the buildings really do create a metropolitan feeling. There is space here for a variety of forms of working and soon also living. The fact that one of the most valuable plots of land between Knödelplatz and Ostbahnhof has not yet been built on shows that time is being taken to develop the area.

Jury chair Marie-Theres Okresek explains why the Werksviertel was awarded the urban development prize: “The Werksviertel […] represents an unprecedented approach to generating a colorful coexistence of different uses on the basis of the existing building […] that enlivens the location at all times of the day and night. The place is constantly in motion and continues to develop. The public space connects and carries these different structures in its equally experimental character. Many loving details make the Werksviertel one of the most extraordinary projects of the recent past.”

The exhibition also features 14 other prize winners, awards and commendations, including “Lebenswertes Weingarten – Wohnen für alle” in Freiburg im Breisgau, “Holstenfleet – Kleiner Kiel Kanal” in Kiel and the multi-generation house in rural Kranzberg. In addition, the special prize “Shaping climate adaptation”, which was awarded to the project

“Redesign of the central Paderquell area” in Paderborn.

As mentioned,the German Urban Development Award was presented in Berlin in May 2023 and will be announced again in 2025 – by the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning, Berlin, together with the Wüstenrot Foundation.

“So it does work!” – Exhibition about the Werksviertel in the Werksviertel Munich
March 12 to 28, 2024 , Werk12 – directly on Knödelplatz