150000m2 for Munich

During the reconstruction after WWII some streets were widened to accommodate more traffic. To achieve this, the destroyed houses were rebuilt five meters behind the original building line. The project takes one of these streets to investigate the possibility of adding the five meters to these buildings again and redensify the city centre.

The Augustenstraße in the district of Maxvorstadt is a typical example for the 50s and the modest architecture of reconstruction after World War II in Munich. This architecture is very often treated badly and demolished rather than renovated.\nIt is also a perfect example for the plan to widen the streets by five meters to accommodate more traffic. To achieve this, the destroyed buildings were rebuilt five meters behind the original building line. Of the 63 buildings on the west side of the street, 52 are moved by five meters. As a result the street offers a potential of 24000m2 over a length of 1,3kms to add in front of the existing buildings.\nIn the new Augustenstraße there are arcades on the ground floor of the extensions and more space for living in the upper floors resulting in roughly 33% more floor area per house.\nIn order to realistically evaluate this potential, all the existing houses are analyzed thoroughly. The houses were planned individually but still share a lot of similarities. Therefore it is possible to group them into seven types which are mostly defined through the position of the main staircase, position of the entrance and the number of apartments per floor.\nOf course it is not enough to just find types to make a qualified statement about the potential.  therefore each type gets assigned one example that is solved in section and floor plans. For most houses it is possible to add one apartment per floor The flats are of modest scale to preserve the social mix that is relatively intact in this part of the city. The bathrooms are extended to be of a scale that fits todays needs and many flats get either a balcony or a loggia. Calculated over the whole street this means that we get 23% more flats in the Augustenstraße and the potential of 240000m2 is indeed realistically usable for redensification ultimately resulting in a potential of 150000m2 for all of Munich.