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THERMAL POWER STATION

UTILISATION

Commercial

LOCATION

Munich – Aubing

COMPLETION

2007

USABLE AREA | GROSS VOLUME

2980 m² |  41180 m³

The striking head-end building of the thermal power station in Munich Neuaubing is the only completed building of an industrial plant planned in the 1920s. The completion was interrupted due to prehistorical archeological finds in the 1930s before the war broke out. Only the head-end building, a two-storied office building and foundations and cellars on the West side were finished. The office building  is covered by a striking clinker facade with 20-metre high windows with natural stone enclosures on three sides. After a short usage by the Deutsche Bahn (German railway company), during which the Western facade was closed and a steel chimney was built in, it was abandoned in the 1970s. In the following years it was subject to wild appropriation by graffiti artists and organizers of rave parties.

The redesigning of the cathedral-like hall with its coal chutes, concrete silos and steel furnaces, bridges and staircases through graffiti, new uses and vandalism has formed the special character of this industrial monument and contemporary witness, which is underlined by the solid stock of ancient trees surrounding the building. The strict demands of the development plan, the protection of the archeological sites, the biotope protection of the exterior space and the preservation order for the building provide strong restrictions for a repurposing of the power station, leading to a preservation of the status quo up to this day. 

The development for the Allguth GmbH intends a reutilisation as an office and event building, with restrictive interventions and installations which protect the existing building. By opening the Western facade of the main building, which was added later, a respectful house-in-house construction, providing office levels in form of combination offices, is to be included. It can be reached over a cascade-like 'stairway to heaven’ and opens up to the hall through glass windows. The inside of the historical structure, which is left 'raw’ otherwise, is to be naturally exposed through a new glass roof at the height of 25 metres, which also provides smoke extraction capacity. The silos made from in-situ concrete are reused as representative rooms and can be reached by glass bridges in the atrium. 

 

On the ground floor the full width of the hall is kept clear. It opens up into an inner courtyard with a water lily pond and ornamental cherry trees, located west of the building and framed by the two-storied adjoining building. Instead of coal, there will be water streaming from the coal chutes of the silos through open channels and basins, leading to the pond in the new courtyard and thus tracing the route of the energy. Beside the light falling in from above, the view through the cathedral-like windows onto the treetops, the 'stairway to heaven’ or rather to the offices and the glass bridges to the silos, 'water'  becomes the central and stimulating theme.

 

In close collaboration with the authorities involved, a building permit for the project was acquired in 2007. Beforehand, the state office for monument protection had led a comprehensive documentation of the entire plant in cooperation with our office. The building permit was prolonged several times, further implementation did not take place.

HHA

Haack + Höpfner . Architekten BDA
Architekten und Stadtplaner PartG mbB

info@haackhoepfner.de
+49 89 123917310 
Agnes-Bernauer-Straße 113
80687 Munich

DE – Germany
Impressum

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