It is already colourful, diverse and full of joie de vivre. The new urban quarter "Werksviertel" in Munich is currently being built right next to Munich's Ostbahnhof railway station. On an area of about 39 hectares, it will combine everything that one imagines under modern urbanity: Art, culture, gastronomy, living, shopping, schools and kindergartens, green spaces, sports and work are all close together here. Architecturally, too, it is characterised by its diversity: In addition to historic, converted industrial buildings, several buildings by renowned planners shine here. Among them is the Plaza Grafinger Straße, designed by the architectural firm Chapman Taylor from Düsseldorf.
HD Wahl
Plaza is a mixed-use complex in the north-east of the Werksviertel. Its basis is a continuous ground floor, which houses a local shopping centre on an area of around 5000 square metres. Above this, four separate buildings develop as perimeter blocks around an intensively landscaped inner courtyard - publicly accessible via a generous flight of steps, it invites people to linger away from the hustle and bustle. The buildings are divided into a classic hotel, a modern boarding house, an office building and a building for fitness and health.
Memorable facade with lamellar elements
The entire complex has a unifying function, both functionally and formally. A variety of visual references, the alternation between closed and open building areas and the colour and materiality of the facades create references to the surroundings. At the same time, the concise aesthetics of the building create a high degree of independence. The lamellar facade elements in particular are very memorable.
HD Wahl
[Aluminium facade for the Mercator One in Duisburg]
are particularly memorable. They wrap around large parts of the ground floor like a ribbon. The L-shaped office building in the north of the site is also distinguished from the other parts of the building by its special facade design. The almost ceramic-looking lamella structure in warm shades of gold, bronze and grey is a curtain wall with aluminium U-profiles on black aluminium sheet. The surface appears unexpectedly natural for a metal facade.
Warm earth tomes as per design guidelines
The design guidelines for the residential area in the Werksviertel specified warm earth tones. The adjacent commercial area is characterised by metal-clad buildings in silver and grey tones. The design of Plaza Grafinger Straße takes up both elements and combines them in the lamella structure of the facade: six colours are repeated at random to reflect the surroundings: two shades of grey represent the industrial heritage, four warm gold and copper tones reflect the residential culture. From a distance, the individual, differently coloured slats merge into a lively surface that subtly varies in colour and brightness.
HD Wahl
The aluminium U-profiles were provided with the premium Duraflon coating by HD Wahl. The planners had deliberately opted for the fluoropolymer-based wet paint system: "Above all, we needed the highest quality in terms of durability, colour fastness and robustness, as the facade lives from its colour nuances and extends to street level," explains project manager Andrew Mackay of Chapman Taylor, adding: "In addition, unlike other systems, this system made it possible to precisely reproduce the desired colour gradations." It was not only the precise reproduction of the colour shades that was made possible by the use of Duraflon. The particularly durable coating retains both the originally applied colour shade and the metallic effect individually set for the Plaza, even under adverse environmental conditions. A positive side effect of the premium coating - especially in inner-city environments - is its high resistance to soiling. Graffiti can be easily removed from the low-maintenance surface, while the material's inherent easy-to-clean effect ensures that dirt is simply rinsed off with rainwater or does not stick.
HD Wahl
[Facade that breaks up sound waves from rail traffic]
Since November 2019, Plaza Grafinger Straße has been the highlight of the new area for visitors and residents of the Werksviertel. Thanks to its successful design and the targeted use of sustainable and durable materials, the building will remain a real eye-catcher in the future.
