Die Macherei is a new business district in Munich that is being developed by Art-Invest Real Estate and Accumulata Immobilien. The new urban center will total 64,000 square meters of rental space and be designed by a collaborative team of three architectural offices: Hollwich Kushner of New York, msm meyer schmitz-morkramer of Cologne/Frankfurt, and OSA Ochs Schmidhuber Architekten of Munich. The mixed-use development will comprise of six new buildings with programs including office, retail, incubator, restaurant and cafe, hotel, and gym.
Different levels and forms for the individual buildings, as well as façades designed in various colors and materials, will bring an exciting edge to the new business district's architecture, with each of the three architectural offices contributing a separate identity to the individual building parts.
Hollwich Kushner is responsible for the realization of the hotel and two adjoining office buildings on the eastern quarter of the site. Rather than over-designing three individual buildings, Hollwich Kushner created a unified design for all buildings and focused their efforts on the public spaces in-between, offering rich and varied urban qualities to locals and visitors. The Hotel rises into the sky with an elevated bar and occupiable terraces, the office building to the east is shaped by a leisure canyon with a two-story gym, and the building to the north juts out to lead the public into the masterplan’s central plaza. With the loft-like proportions of the facade, the buildings portray an informality that puts people first.
“Returning to Munich after 22 years is a dream come true. I could not be more excited to realize Hollwich Kushner’s first European project in my hometown. Designed not just as a series of buildings but as an exploration of the spaces between the buildings, Die Macherei is an innovative design for a new way of working and interacting, integrating social activity and behaviors to promote a sense of community,” said Hollwich Kushner principal Matthias Hollwich.
Munich-based architects OSA Ochs Schmidhuber are designing the approximately 15,000 m² incubator building, combining past and future with a brick façade with superimposed steel and glass architecture on the building's upper part. Here the reference to the past is the clinker façade reminiscent of the brick kilns formally situated in Berg am Laim. Bright loft offices with 3.50 meter high ceilings and exposed, industrial-style piping systems are planned for the building's interior. A generously proportioned gastronomy area with outdoor space on the central square is also to be created.
The design by msm meyer schmitz-morkramer – an architectural firm based in Cologne and Frankfurt – also includes loft offices and retail spaces, and is expressed in functional and flexible design creating a strong ensemble effect along the Berg-am-Laim-Strasse. A multilayered set of materials aims to give each house its individual stamp and design and is reminiscent of Gründerzeit loft and industrial buildings. "We at msm have designed what we lovingly call the "Nachtkastl" – literally "bedside table" in Bavarian dialect – due to the particular materials we used for its façade, and because it stands on legs, The "Nachtkastl" links two other building structures, forms a characteristic element of "Die Macherei" and underscores the whole district's industrial architectural style," comments Guido Prummer.