Thursday, May 29, 2014

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.

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