Archinect - News

Kéré Architecture breaks ground on new timber childcare center at the Technical University of Munich

2024-04-24T15:45:00-04:00

Kéré Architecture has broken ground on a new all-wood childcare facility at the Technical University Munich (TUM). The design of the Ingeborg Pohl Kinderoase an der TUM is 700 square meters (7,500 square feet) in total and will hold space for 60 children in service to faculty members and their families.

Image copyright Kéré Architecture

The building, made possible through a donation from philanthropist Ingeborg Pohl, is defined by its playful interior, which incorporates a variety of scales and unique circulatory features, such as slides that connect each of its five floors.

Image copyright Kéré Architecture

Administrative suites are placed at the ground level, with three floors dedicated to children and divided by age group. A green roof play area called the Himmelswiese (German for “field of the heavens”) completes the program above. The firm has emphasized its use of timber throughout is meant to “take the sustainability of the building to the extreme.”

Image copyright Kéré Archi...

German research group completes Europe's first Hyperloop test track

2023-08-04T17:57:00-04:00

Europe’s first certified full-scale Hyperloop test track is now ready for test operations, marking a significant milestone in sustainable and ultra-fast transportation. The 24-metre-long track was developed by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Hyperloop research group. The first successful test run with a passenger pod in vacuum conditions took place on the 10th of July 2023.

The research and development program TUM Hyperloop at the Technical University of Munich reached a milestone when it successfully conducted the first passenger ride under vacuum conditions on July 10, 2023. As reported by Innovation Origins, the group will now focus on refining their track’s drive system, levitation technology, and behavior when in vacuum conditions.

Image © Andreas Heddergott/TUM

TUM Hyperloop was founded to compete in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, an annual competition from 2015–2019 that called for hyperloop transport vehicle designs and prototypes.

Image © Andreas Heddergott/TUM

TUM’s recent triumph comes following another achievement it has made in hyperloop design, in which a student team won the “Not-A-Boring Competition” with a tunnel boring machine that employs an innovative horizontal digging technique.

Video courtesy TUM Hyperloop/YouTube

Check out SOM's movement-inspired collaboration with artist Janet Echelman in Munich

2021-09-16T17:32:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has once again come together with American artist Janet Echelman for a site-specific sculptural installation in Munich’s historic Odeonsplatz Square.

Images courtesy of Studio Echelman

The atmospheric sculpture is in constant motion, activating the public space below while changing shape and color with the wind using a 3D data model of the earth’s floor following a powerful 2010 Chilean earthquake from which the ‘1.26’ monicker is taken.

Images courtesy of Studio Echelman

“My artwork reflects an interconnectedness of opposites — flexibility with strength, earth with sky, things we can control with the forces beyond us,” Echelman said.

Images courtesy of Studio Echelman

The sculpture is comprised of more than 361,000 individual knots formed by handmade splices of woven nylon and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene rope fibers. The sculpture weighs 700 pounds and occupies about 3,300 square feet of total area. Its responsiveness and adaptivity represent th...

Allianz Arena will not display rainbow colors in support of LGBTQ activists following a controversial UEFA ruling

2021-06-22T21:01:00-04:00

UEFA has rejected a call from activists to convert the Allianz Arena in Munich into a rainbow-covered light scheme in unison with protests ahead of Germany’s final European Championship group game with Hungary that it is slated to host on Wednesday.

The city council’s proposal was rejected by Europe’s governing soccer body after a ruling cited the effort’s political motivations as the reasoning behind the denial.

Activists are looking to shed light on the recent passage of a bill they say is meant to target LGBTQ education in Hungary’s public school system. The Herzog and de Meuron-designed stadium would have joined other Bundesliga pitches across the country in a show of solidarity that will now be expressed by fans inside the stadium, at Town Hall, and on the city’s nearby Olympiaturm as support for the protest grows.

Aerial photo of Allianz Arena. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Chumwa.

“We in Munich certainly won’t let ourselves be discouraged from sending a clear signal to...

HENN and C.F. Møller Architects to design new geometric hospital in Munich

2021-02-16T17:56:00-05:00

HENN and C.F. Møller Architects win first prize for the new Grosshadern Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Clinic Campus, triumphing over 17 other planning teams who competed for the commission. The architects plan to transform the existing structures to create a green, connected, and friendly environment for medical care, research, and education.

"...we are looking forward to continuing our work in collaboration with HENN and the rest of the team as well as LMU to realize a new building and a campus which meet the structural demands and requirements of a university hospital of the future and at the same time enhance the urban image based on Healing Architecture principles and by putting people in the center," said Klavs Hyttel, Partner at C.F. Møller Architects, in a statement.

The new building comprises a total of six new clinical centers and is the largest public construction project in Bavaria since the hospital was built in the 1960s/70s. Three centers will be introduced: the c...

UNStudio proposes a new meaning for 'smart living' with their latest residential project in Munich

2021-02-10T20:29:00-05:00

Conversation around the future of housing is a topic commonly discussed within architecture and urban planning circles. Firms large and small have postulated where issues within housing schemes lie and how the industry can address them. However, as architects continue to dance around solutions for "smart housing" and urban living, there are reservations on what that looks like specifically.

While housing issues vary worldwide based on their social, political, and environmental factors, firms like MVRDV, Sidewalk Labs, among others, have presented ideas that aim to reimagine residential developments and their so-called "smart" components. Recently, UNStudio announced the introduction of their latest residential project in Munich called Van B. They claim their prototype for modern city-dwelling will "cater to changing demographics and multiple family constellations. With its highly flexible apartments, outdoor and shared communal spaces, and striking facade, Van B offers a new form o...

HENN's winning design gives the largest cultural center in Europe a makeover

2018-10-29T19:43:00-04:00

The Gasteig, the largest cultural center in Europe, will undergo an intensive renovation and remodeling. After 30 years of use, the Gasteig will be redesigned by the team at HENN. Opening in 1984/85, the centre welcomes an estimated two million visitors annually. Originally designed by the architecture partnership of Raue, Rollenhagen, Grossmann and Lindemann, its red brick design may not have been a visual showstopper. However, the building's role as Munich's cultural hub is what it's revered for.

Image © HENN

Having been chosen to renovate a structural icon within the community, HENN focused on redesigning the center by introducing a new architectural element to the building. Highlighting the role of the center's interior, HENN's design proposal features a glazed bridge that focuses on uniting existing areas of the building. The transparency of the bridge creates a new visual perspective enabling the the Gasteig to open up to the city and create a welcoming feel.

Interior space I...

BAU 2017, the premier event for architects and planners, is approaching quickly — register now!

2016-10-26T17:37:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BAU 2017.

On about 185,000 m2 of exhibition space, BAU will be presenting a display of architecture, materials and systems for commercial and residential construction and interior design, for both new-build and R&M projects. This next edition of the show, which takes place in Munich from January 16 to 21, 2017, will again be filling up all the available halls at the exhibition center. Here around 2,000 exhibitors from more than 40 countries will be showcasing a comprehensive range of materials and technologies for planning and construction. In particular architects – many coming from all over the world – regard this event as an unmissable source of information and inspiration.

BAU brings together all the technologies, products and materials that are used in planning and building. This cross-functionality approach makes BAU an essential information source for everyone involved in planning and building: from investors, planners and architects through to s...

BAU 2017: Events, services and information for architects

2016-09-27T12:30:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BAU 2017.

News cycle: August's noteworthy bicycle news

2015-08-19T14:59:00-04:00

Germany might still be a car-obsessed country, but it's starting to build an Autobahn for bikes.

From the U.S. to Germany, urban planners and major corporations are starting to purposefully design for bicycles instead of individually operated cars. In Munich, a proposed network of two-lane bike paths would radiate out from the city center to the surrounding suburbs, creating 400 miles of cyclist-only access. Meanwhile, according to WebUrbanist, international fast-food chain McDonald's has created an unfolding bicycle-oriented food transport container known as "McBike," which allows a bicyclist to visit the drive-through lane and comfortably transport a beverage and hot food home. The program was launched in Copenhagen, and may soon make its way to a Mickey Dee's near you.

Designing for the Night

2015-03-13T15:10:00-04:00

When I speak with a student about nightlife they have something different in mind than a 65-year old town planning manager. In the municipalities, finding contacts is difficult - often nobody feels responsible or capable of speaking. That should change.

There are sleepy cities and cities that never sleep. There are cities famed for their raucous nightlife, and others whose adolescent residents dream of leaving. According to the German urban scientist Jakob F. Schmid, interviewed for DW.DE, "Nightlife often defines the character of entire streets or districts." Schmid runs the "City After Eight - Management of the Urban Night Economy" project with Thomas Krüger, which is funded by the German government.

Looking at a variety of German cities including Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfurt, the researchers mapped nightlife "with online recommendation platforms as the basis for the data." The hazy blue results indicate that various forms a city's nightlife may take. In the famed-party city Berlin, for example, hotspots are diffused throughout the expansive metropolis. In a traditional German city, on the other hand, the nightlife tends to be concentrated "on the city center, usually on the streets directly surrounding the center proper."

In the...

UNStudio selected to design the Baumkirchen Mitte in Munich

2013-11-25T18:03:00-05:00

UNStudio was recently chosen to design the Baumkirchen Mitte, an office and residential complex in Munich, Germany. In collaboration with OR else Landscapes, UNStudio won out of six shortlisted finalist teams that included BIG, J Mayer H Architects, and Schneider + Schumacher Architects.

All images courtesy of UNStudio.

West 8 Wins Freiham Nord Urban & Landscape Planning Competition in Munich

2011-10-11T14:31:00-04:00

Munich's Department of Urban Planning and Construction recently announced that Rotterdam-based practice West 8 has won Part B (Housing and Neighborhood Center) of the urban and landscape planning competition for the first phase of Freiham North. Part A (Community Center, School and Sports Center) was won by Ortner & Ortner Baukunst Gesellschaft von Architekten, Berlin.

Henning Larsen Architects Wins Siemens Headquarters Competition

2011-07-01T17:01:00-04:00

And here's another one from Henning Larsen Architects: the Copenhagen-based firm has just been announced winner of the international competition for the planned rebuilding of Siemens' corporate headquarters on Wittelsbacherplatz in Munich, Germany. The winning proposal was chosen for its comprehensive approach to sustainable design.