6052 Lotte-Branz-Street Munich

Location:
Munich, Germany

Project phases:
Direct commission, Realization 2024

Client:
City of Munich Municipal Department

Landscape architecture:
Studio Vulkan

Architecture:
Hild und K Architekten

Photography:
Florian Holzherr art & architecturaldocumentations, Daniela Valentini

Visualization:
Hild und K Architekten

Details:

• [furniture]
• [pavement]
• [yard]

Between Shelter and Community

In the north of Munich, one of the largest municipal cold-weather shelters for homeless people was opened in 2024. Although the planned use of the building and open spaces involved strict functional constraints, and despite the project’s remote location in a large industrial area, the compact, comb-like structure created a facility that offers homeless people a dignified place to stay during the cold season.

Inside the building, the up to 800 visitors have little privacy. The communal outdoor spaces therefore play an important role, serving both as places of retreat and as spaces for encounter. Projections and recesses of the building structure create several courtyards, each serving as an outdoor area for different user groups (men, women, families). Conceived as extended living rooms, the courtyards function both as places to linger and to withdraw. A central design element is the paving, which, through different laying patterns and a play of light and dark stones, evokes the appearance of living room carpets.

Robust seating furniture and bench-table combinations with wooden surfaces, as well as lighting elements, also reference living room furnishings. The entrances face the street and establish a clear sense of address through square-like forecourts with seating.

On the flat roofs of the buildings, richly structured, extensive biodiversity areas have been created, featuring temporary water surfaces, deadwood and stone piles, as well as wildflower meadows. While insects and birds populate these areas, small terrace spaces provide staff with moments of quiet. The roof landscape also serves as a research and testing site for the Chair of Plant Use at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, where forward-looking concepts for roof landscapes are being developed.