A new centre for Freimann

Up until the 1930th Freimann was an entirely separate settlement to the north of Munich surrounded by countryside. The northward growth of the city connected Freimann to Schwabing and the main part of the city.

Freimann itself grew arround the core of Alt-Freimann and the Eisenbahnersiedlung. Some of those residential areas were `self-built´ projects, where citizens put up their own dwellings. This also helps to explain the strong attachment which local people feel for their area, inspite of all its drawbacks.

The physical structure of Freimann is interrupted and surrounded by essentially hostile uses like the sewage works, the rubbish tip, combined with the routing of the autobahn A9 and rail and metro routes. This is why Freimann is regarded as a poor environment to live in.

The quality areas are concentrated in clearly identificable ´islands´whose residents lead an embattled existance amongst the noise, pollution and poor urban quality facilities.

In the course of the public planning weekend, which was held in March 1999, it became increasingly clear that the participants felt the lack of a true centre to Freimann. The logical place for it would be where the old railway depot is situated, where it then could start to connect the existing sub-centres.

Taking into consideration both the general themes and the detailed information which emerged during the workshops and planning groups, the design team pulled together a comprehensive set of proposals to incorporate as many of the ideas as possible.

The thinking behind the main recommendations to emerge can be summarised under the heading of social infrastructure, transport strategy and green links and open spaces.

More informations about München Freimann you also find (in German) here …

→ Newspaper article (German) `Eine urbane Mitte für die Inseln im Norden´; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 27 March 1999

→ download results, part 1

→ download results, part 2 (abridged)