SAP Garden is a new sports arena located in the world-famous Munich Olympic Park. The sports arena, with match seating of up to 11,500, will be the future home of both German ice hockey champions, Munich Red Bulls and German basketball champions FC Bayern Munich.
The design of SAP Garden excels in its ability to create a flexible, multipurpose arena with a strong identity, adding its own original, modern expression. The facade structure is dominated by vertical lamellas, softly bend raising upwards over the glass-paneled entrances to make it easier to locate these. The height is kept in a human scale to ensure an inviting, open and welcoming appearance.
The vertical facade elements let daylight in and offer outside views from the arena’s lobby area and the top-floor offices. Using steel, glass and concrete, the arena has the same materiality as other structures in the park.
Flexibility is the keyword for a successful arena and SAP Garden is designed to transform from an ice hockey rink to a basketball court in a matter of hours. The arena will primarily be used for ice hockey and basketball games but can also be used for concerts and other cultural events.
The building contains the oval arena, three training rinks, changing rooms, offices, a roof-top bar, a cafe and an underground car park. The training rinks, which lie in direct extension of the oval arena, will be covered by the manmade hill whose geometry, dimensions and height match the existing landscape.
The administrative offices are placed at the top of the building with views of the surrounding landscape as well as interior views of the bowl. Placing all the offices on the same level enables a highly flexible floor plan.
Inauguration of the new sports arena is planned for 2021.