New build - GWG München

Sendling and
Sendling-Westpark
There are few districts in which the dramatic transformation
that Munich has undergone since the Second World War can
be seen as clearly as it can in Sendling-Westpark. The area that
used to be dominated by the fields and meadows of the surrounding
farms is now an urban district with neighbourhoods
set in green surroundings. Many of the apartment buildings
were constructed in the 1950s, with simple coal stoves and
coal hot water boilers, and in part without bathrooms – a far
cry from the composite thermal insulation systems and solar
panels of today. Even though the architecture of this period is
undergoing a renaissance, art historians and monument conservationists
have generally restricted their enthusiasm to official
buildings with slim profiles and clear line designs. There is
no talk of the beauty of a bygone lifestyle on the breadline.
The ambivalent strata of the economic miracle can be peeled
back layer by layer, starting with the simple buildings, whose
sole purpose was to alleviate the chronic shortage of housing
and going all the way to the expansive estates, long since set
in generously dimensioned green surroundings, with trees that
are themselves witnesses of times gone by.
Green is also a constant theme of Sendling-Westpark. And
what would fit this theme better than the splendid landscape
park of the same name, created for the International Garden
Exhibition IGA in 1983. Divided into two sections by the Mittlerer
Ring, the 60,000 square metres of parkland, pathways
and green fields with a beer garden and lakeside café are a
veritable blessing. Landscape architect Peter Kluska has created
an expansive landscape of artificial moraine hills, that
offers something for everyone: joggers and families, amateur
gardeners and rose fans, or those who simply wish to take a
pleasant walk or have a barbecue in pleasant surroundings.
The park is a melting pot of Munich’s nations and social
groups.
The area is in many ways the direct opposite of the altogether
more plain and simple park on the Isar. The Westpark is the
scene of all manner of leisure activities, including volleyball
and football, walking, cycling and sledging, acrobatics and
chess. With its open-air theatre and cinema on the lakeside
stage and numerous festivals, including many for children, the
park, which is now over 25 years old, is the backbone of the
entire neighbourhood.
Now that a tunnel is being built below the Mittlere Ring on
the Garmischer Strasse and the area is undergoing traffic
calming, virtually eliminating noise and emissions, the advantages
of the district are becoming clearer: its central position
and astounding green spaces, which remain a joy to behold,
despite the modernisation and building works. Here, Sendling-
Westpark is green, unbelievably green.
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