Potential growth

2.5.3

150

Potential growths [22]

“We are the city – and we keep on growing”. According to available projections, Munich’s inhabitants will increase by about 230,000 by 2030. That poses hurdles and crucial issues for the city: How to retain the quality of life? How to respond to the lack of affordable living space? How to solve area conflicts? How to avoid social polarisation? At the same time, global challenges such as climate change and scarcity of resources (see construction areas) require attention. That Munich will change its look is therefore inevitable.

Using space more efficiently in a booming city like Munich is, and it will continue to be so the primary intent. While 650 hectares of barracks, railways, industrial and traffic areas which are becoming available could be used for planning and construction purposes, today and tomorrow, there is only a supply of about 50,000 housing units to be placed in unconstrained fields.

However, by 2030 more than double of that housing space will be required and individually, those vacant portions of territories must be taken into consideration through a regulation shift and technical shrewdness.

Consequently, we will soon be facing bottlenecks in the housing market, particularly when it comes to publicly funded housing programmes. How can new areas be generated in a densely populated, growing city?

Part of the opportunities can be the commercial areas, to be transformed into mixed development areas with a share for new forms of housing, advancing firstly at Munich’s north-eastern outskirts. Secondly, the more significant portions of territory around the railways retain a hidden potential, which as well as it’s happening along the Stammstrecke, can be

151

152 unveiled thanks to several technological solutions that can guarantee optimal conditions even in unfavourable positions. Still, these measures will not suffice in the long run of creating enough housing space for all those seeking to live in Munich. In order to meet housing demands exceeding that limit, the cooperation of the city of Munich with its surrounding towns, municipalities and districts in the region, will become increasingly important as they still offer potentials for new housing construction.

“We must not turn Munich into a habitable, functional machine for optimised, achievement-oriented yuppies. Everyone should rather always be aware of the fact that we live in a community, which does not have to be profitable at all times, but which always needs to remain humane and social“, adds Luise Kinseher. “It is important that Munich, despite all its economic success, does not lose sight of its heart and gemütlichkeit.”

Community meeting - Englisher Garten 153

154 Due to large internationally working companies and its strong tourism sector, but yet depending on global economic developments that are barely foreseeable, will be necessary to focus on the optimisation of building spaces. To do so the building itself will have to give a friendly face to the city but primarly to its inhabitant.

As remembered a constant influx (accounted on around 20/30 thousand more people yearly) and a seventh of the population constantly exchangin, increasingly diverse lifestyles and less and less spaces for new buildings have led to considerable price pressure hard to counter with free market means. As is widely known, property prices in Munich have been soaring for years. The high demand for real estate as investment objects additio- nally pushes prices – with considerable effects on rent levels. Rents in 2013, when objects were occupied for the first time, were at about 15.40 per square

Price trend - 1990/2018

2018 155

1990 Euro ² m 9,80 18,50

156 metre and nowadays reach peaks of 18,50€/m2. That corresponds to a rise of approximately 45% in relation to the 1990 value. Publicly funded housebuilding is not considered in this statistics, but it contributes to prices not rising even more rapidly and is to be promoted more intensively. [23]

Potential areas for new housing construction are extremely scarce. Which planning strategies allow for socially balanced housing policy in suitable areas? Densifying existing residential areas with the objective to improve the housing offer, a strategy for the city and landscape-compatible settlement and free space development at the outskirts, to be combined as said to a restructuration of commercially- oriented city districts, often in close connection with those mentioned above in order to achieve higher residential use.

“Lowering energy and resource consumption of a city must not

be attempted only on a small scale. An urban area is an interconnected system, almost an organism. It is not enough to insulate individual houses and install more efficient heating here and there” (Patrick Illinger, Head of the science department of Süddeutsche Zeitung). There must be an overall concept that integrates mobility, resource and energy consumption and takes into account as decisive aspect the lifestyles of the citizens.

157

The residential areas can be easily integrated with new forms of working services or companies business activities, which often in Munich receive location-related benefits. Munich’s position is excellent, both at a national and international level. Its economic development is described as dynamic, while the quality of life and environmental standards are high.

Munich is hence embedded in a safe, economically, socially and culturally stable environment, and consequently emanates vast

158 attraction. The city intends to ensure that everyone can express his or her personality here in line with his or her ideas, both in professional as well as in private regard. As aforementioned in the business sector, Munich pursues the goal of strengthening its position as a creative and innovative location where knowledge, education and research thrive. That also means facilitating operations as well as the settlement of start-up.

Special attention is at this moment attributed to ecological and social interests. Munich is to remain an attractive place for all its inhabitants – whether they are long established, new arrivals from near and far, families or singles, old or young, a place where everyone can live well and nobody is excluded.

Potential growth 159

160

3

DAILY STAGE

Tramonto su Hackerbrücke

Sunset view Hackerbrücke

166 The architecture has today more than yesterday the aim of answering to several social needs, offering new opportunities to whom is seeking for that.

The city is the background of all the episodes that characterise the lives of the individuals who live there, a system characterised by the succession of blocks and infrastructures, which are the framework to the minimum housing unit. It is precisely the physical, spatial and architectural elements themselves and the external factors that define the cardinal signs of each city and strongly our way of conceiving and using that space. Therefore, identifying and restoring clear and readable aspects of architecture becomes a necessity that does not confuse individuals who increasingly immerge in inter-personal relationships and digital connections.

Mundanity 167

3.1

168

[1]

The Zebra Motif

“I asked the zebra, Are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? Are you noisy with quiet times? Or are you quiet with noisy times? [...]” (Silverstein 1981, 125).[1]

A central notion of Gestalt psychology, applied to architecture is what we call namely the figure/ ground relationship and the reversibility of figure and ground connected with that. It is about looking the city from above, from outside, that makes it easy to understand. The plans are perceivable, and the relations between buildings and open spaces become clear. We see such a composition, a sense of art, that evolved in the time, from one to another block, from one to the next street. However, then comes the question: Is it enough to understand the city? What makes a square a square, a park a park or a room a room, or better, that specific place?

[2] «We build a neighbourhood, not a settlement». That is how to understand the buildings as an imprint of public space, which seeks to mesh with the surrounding spatial structures. Structures made not only of constructed elements but interactions and people living everyday lives. So the question: “The zebra: is it white with black stripes or black with white ones?” [2] comes as a good metaphor to answer to those questions, pointing out the fact that it does not have to be seen only one aspect of the architecture in order to do a project that becomes part of the whole urban tissue.

169

170

Urban fabric

Black and White 171