Name: Hanns-Seidel-Platz
Location: Munich, Germany
Year: 2009-2010
Type: urban planning
Status: competition
Coauthor: moritz alken, philipp reichelt

Neuperlach, a satellite town on the outskirts of Munich that was originally built from 1967 on for 80.000 people, reflects more than 25 years of modernist urban development. It is characterized by wide streets dividing the several quarters, and long distances between the urban functions that could only be reached by car. The several districts are clearly differentiated from one another and dominated by large-scale buildings. The structural plan from the 1960’s has never been completed; the centre of the district has never been realized.

For this proposal, we stay within the vocabulary of Neuperlach: the largescale urban plan interpreted in a new way. We use the ‘block’ as an urban frame and adapt it according to seize and program (housing, office, shop, etc.) in its depth, length and width. We also use its spatial qualities for the landscape.

Arranging those elements on the plot creates a great variety of urban situations and squares. The inversion of the frame makes urban inner spaces to outer spaces and vice versa. Thus, the block, known as in a strict grid arranged and introvert building type which isolates itself from its context, is newly defined: The frame works!