Südseite Obersendling: new green in an urban envelope

Located near the river Isar, on both sides of the railway and with views of the Alps beyond, this former employment area ticked all the boxes for residential redevelopment. The commuter station Siemenswerke is now at the heart of the new urban quarter of Südseite. Along the railway the area presents itself with long slabs of apartment blocks with apartment towers behind.

Once you leave the S-Bahn station the new urban quarter opens up, revealing an urban park on the westside and communal gardens on the eastside.

Although a high-density redevelopment, as is usual in Munich, Südseite feels spacious and green as a result of a conscious placement of the apartment towers in a sea of enveloping greenery within a clear boundary of housing. The architecture is modern and of the moment, but without being gimmicky or using design elements for the sake of it.

The apartment complexes around the towers (left) have been kept simple in design and echo the treatment of the earlier apartment slabs (right). The last phase has been treated in a more urban fashion with long facades in comparison to the earlier buildings which are more segmented.

Beyond the similarly white housing of the second and third phase stand the colourful building of the first building phase. These apartment building are long slabs set in communal greenery. The colours are quite typical for such Zeilenbauten with pastel shades of yellow, green, blue and red.

In phase 3 (left)and phase 2(right) the architecture is based on simple facades in simple volumes. The detailing around the windows or the treatment of the ground floor provides ornament and variation.

Seen from a distance Südseite presents itself as a high-density urban area with the new residential towers at its heart providing a new skyline together with the former Siemens Office Tower (Siemens Hochhaus) that is just visible as a grey slab behind the new towers in white.

Südseite Obersendling: high-density redevelopment of the former Siemens Werke

In Obersendling - within Borough 19 of Munich - the Siemens-factory (Siemenswerke in German) was, from the 1950s onwards, located on what was then the edge of the city. The factory site comprised of both offices and factory buildings, among them the well known Siemens Hochhaus (literally: the Siemens high-rise) built between 1961 and '63. The building designed by Hans Maurer with its 23 floors and a height of 75 meters was at the time of completion the tallest office building in Munich.

The Siemens site in Obersendling was located on both sides of the railway line and edged on open countryside towards the south and the Isar river valley towards the east. The oldest buildings follow the original parcelling of the land, the main offices of Siemens are built on a grid parallel to the railway line.

A reorganisation meant that the site in Obersendling would become mostly obsolete. This prompted plans to redevelop the site located near both a fast train link and an underground station; also the Isar river lies close by to the east. Given this prime location plans were drawn up in 2000 under the name Isar Süd. Siemens Real Estate planed to redevelop the site between 2005 and 2016 as a mixed use area with residential and office use. The hitherto closed off site would be opened up to provide better quality of life for the people already living nearby, but also for the new residents many of whom would be linked to Siemens. In several building phases some 440,000 sqm of office space, 120,000 sqm of residential space and 50,000 sqm of greenery and parks would be realised. The project also included two tall high-rises of 148 and 112 meter respectively that would create a new ensemble and skyline with the old Siemens tower.

These towers would prove to be the downfall for the project. As a result of fears for the well known view towards the Alps, the perceived negative impact on the Munich skyline and the visibility of the towers from the Isar valley the redevelopment plans prompted a civil initiative fronted by the then mayor Georg Kronawitter known as the Initiave-Unser-München (Our Munich Initiative). As a result of the vote in 2004, it was ordained that no new high-rises would be allowed that exceeded the height of the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) at 100 meters. This victory by the people of Munich resulted in the project Isar Süd to be abandoned.

As a result Siemens decided to vacate the whole site and planning permission was sought to demolish the former offices including the Siemens Hochhaus. This also met with fierce opposition, so Siemens Real Estate sold the land and all the buildings on it to a project developer between 2005 and 2008. New plans were drawn up in accordance with the new development rules under the name Südseite (literally: the Southside).

The site was subdivided into 4 redevelopment areas to correspond with the planned building phases. The aim was to develop a completely new urban quarter that was marketed as a green family-friendly oasis between Obersendling and Solln. The plans consisted of 1000 new dwellings -both rental and owner occupied, a student campus of 300 residential units, education facilities, care facilities for both children and the elderly, a health centre and a shopping centre. A 32,000 sqm urban park is also part of the redevelopment. All houses are apartments, often with parking below in an underground parking garage. The streets are predominantly laid out towards cyclists and pedestrians. No through-traffic is possible in the new estate. Large communal garden are provided for the residents with flower gardens and playgrounds. Building work started in 2008 and will be completed in 2016.

The new residential area of Südseite is being developed on both sides of the railway. On the westside we find the student campus, the shopping centre and the facilities surrounded by a large new park (p).To the east a large central rectangle of apartment buildings around 5 residential towers set in communal gardens. Behind this, new apartment building are built in slabs as is customary in Germany to create an integration with the pre-existing residential buildings around the site.

Love-locked

On many bridges in for instance Paris on the Pont des Arts you can see little padlocks hanging from the railings. The practice of securing padlocks to bridges as a way of confirming eternal love is said to originate in 1980s Hungary. Especially after this gesture of lovers confirmation to one another was mentioned in the 2006 Italian novel Ho Voglia Di Te (I Love You) it became a craze in Italy and soon spread worldwide.

Most locks are red, some are engraved with messages or names. The process is the same so lovers secure the lock to the railings and through the key into the river to ensure they be separated nevermore! Where there are many of these padlocks they can make for an interesting addition to the urban landscape. Authorities are less pleased however claiming the weight of the many padlocks compromises the structure of the bridge involved; and this may in effect be true in some cases, but surely not all!

Das Grüne U: the green envelope of Stuttgart

A long bridge (above - left) connects the Oberer Schlossgarten with the Mittlerer Schlossgarten across the very busy Schillerstrasse that runs along the central station. Park Rosenstein (above - middle) is a large landscaped park with a neoclassical former palace surrounded by -what else- a rose garden. The Leibfriedscher Garten (above - right) is dominated by this artificial mount that serves as a vantage point across the city. The Wartbergpark (below - left) is also a more recent park and is known for the many fountains. A pre-existing allotment (below - middle) was incorporated into the Wartbergpark. To connect the Wartbergpark to the Höhenpark a new walkway was laid down along the steep slope of the Wartberg (Literally: Guards Mountain) and cuts through old vineyards (below - right).

Das Grüne U, Stuttgart

As part of the 1993 International Flowershow (IGA) a number of existing parks have been connected and a number of new parks have been developed to create a continuous string of public green spaces. This development is ongoing with the redevelopment of part of the Exhibition Site (Messe Gelände) into a park connecting the Höhenpark to the Feuerbacher Heide, an area of natural beauty. Together these green areas form an upturn U around the old city of Stuttgart; hence the name Parken des Grünes U (the parks of the green U).

The connections a mainly physical in nature and comprise of bridges across often sizable height differences and bundled infrastructure. Most of these new connections take the shape of spacious bridges with an access on a gentle slope making them very suitable for both foot traffic and cyclists.

The green U consists of several parks, some of which are historic, others are modern in character. The U starts at the former castle of the Dukes of Württemberg with the Oberer Schlossgarten (1) and continues downhill towards the Neckar river via the Mittlerer Schlossgarten (2), Unterer Schlossgarten (3), Park Villa Berg (4) and Park Rosenstein (5) to Park Wilhelma (6) - the city zoo. Rosenstein is connected to the Leibfriedscher Garten (7) by a large bridge. An even bigger bridge crosses the Heilbronnerstrasse and railway to connect the Leibfriedscher Garten to the Wartbergpark (8). A wide path runs up a hillside vineyard to two bridges spanning the Stresemannstrasse, thus making the link to the Höhenpark (9). Via the Kochenhof park extension (10), the new Landsbergerpark (11) and the Kräherwald (12) with the Bismarckturm, the Höhenpark will be connected to the Feurbacher Heide (F).