The Munich Werksviertel

"Good things from Munich - good things from Pfanni": That was the slogan in 1969 for the potato products that were exported worldwide from Munich's Ostbahnhof for almost 50 years. Today, the 40 hectare Pfanni, Zündapp and Optimol factory site itself could become an export hit - because it represents the successful transformation of an industrial wasteland into a lively urban district.

How did the “largest dumpling kitchen in Europe” become the “largest club mile in Europe” and finally an award-winning city district? How did it come about that, on one of Germany's most valuable industrial wastelands, small-scale studios can now productively coexist alongside huge office spaces, high and subculture, high-tech and low-tech, gastronomy and sheep?

The secret of the Werksviertel lies in its step-by-step, partly experimental planning and a private clientele that recognizes the existing buildings - both structurally and culturally - as a resource and attaches at least the same value to them as the land. Instead of demolition and short-term speculative profits, the owners, together with steidle architects (master plan), focused on preservation, densification and a maximum mix of uses right from the start. They continued to think ahead about the existing buildings, some of which were difficult, while also allowing for chance and the unplanned. Formative examples of this transformation are the dumpling factory Werk3, which was (re)planned by steidle architects into an office, commercial and studio building, as well as the conversion of the potato flour silo Werk4 into a hybrid sculpture, which today houses a hostel, a hotel and a climbing center.

The selection of other architectural firms was carefully tailored to the respective planning task and the specific location. In the Werksviertel there are buildings by local and international, young and established offices, including MVRDV (Rotterdam), Snøhetta (Oslo), Hild+K (Munich), Nieto Sobejano (Madrid/Berlin), Graft (Berlin) and N-V-O Nuyken by Oefele (Munich) – and in the future also the Munich Concert Hall by Cukrowicz Nachbaur (Bregenz).

The exhibition on the occasion of the German Urban Development Prize in Werk12 now shows the history and future of the Werksviertel: In addition to plans and architectural models, there are also curiosities to discover, such as a potato sorter from 1955, illuminated signs and disco balls from legendary clubs of the 1990s, and graffiti on discarded components. And the Werksviertel itself: with public tours through old, new and hidden places, from the potato flake silo right up to the Stadtalm.

Speakers at the opening:
Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Merk (City Building Councillor)
Marie-Theres Okresek (chairwoman of the jury)
Caroline Eckart (OTEC)
Johannes Ernst (Steidle Architects)
Stefanie Jühling (Jühling & Köppel landscape architects)