New build - GWG München

Rebuild or renovate? When water damage caused a piece of a
cellar ceiling to fall away in December 1986, appraisers confirmed
their expectation that many ceilings would last no more
than a further five years. A large-scale comparison project was
planned in the St.-Michael-Strasse: Between 1988 and 1992,
one block was completely renovated, whilst another was
demolished and rebuilt in the same style. GWG München then
conducted a survey, which found that both models enjoyed
a high level of acceptance. Of course, the costs were also
compared: The new building incurred costs of DM 3,270 per
square metre of living space, while the modernisation cost
only DM 2,542. Hagen summed it up succinctly: “This is not
an economically acceptable value. It has been proven that
modernisation can be implemented, but not with the required
level of sustainability.” The modernised apartments still had a
room height of 2.20 metres, a level that was no longer tenable
in the long term. The balance was tipping in favour of rebuilding,
added to which, statistics of the occupancy structure for
the approximately 800 apartments showed that there were
887 residents, of whom no more than five were children or
young people under the age of twenty.
Two years later, the decision was taken by the GWG München,
in conjunction with the City of Munich, to rebuild the entire
inner area of the estate in four phases. The future buildings
would preserve tenants’ gardens and maintain the proportions
of the original buildings in terms of their height. However, to
achieve an increase in total volume, the depth of the buildings
was to be increased.
The climax of the extensive refurbishment activities was the
organisation of an urban-building and landscape-planning
idea and implementation competition for the outer areas of
the estate on the Bad-Schachener-Strasse, which was won by
the Munich-based architecture firm Michael Ziller. By the end
of 2008 the first phase of the renovation project was complete.
It comprised 58 subsidised apartments of between
39 and 113 square metres; situated at the corner of Bad-
Schachener-Strasse and Echardinger Strasse; and flanked by
a seven-storey tower. The renovation of the estate then continued.
The Maikäfer Estate stands as a real-life example of the metamorphosis
of a settlement and its occupants: from the new
family estate, with its ideological baggage, through a long
period of deterioration, to the demolition of the former structures
and a complete renewal.
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