Good architecture always tells a story. And although WERK17 in Werksviertel-Mitte is one of the few new buildings in the midst of the surrounding renovated industrial buildings, the history of the building begins more than 600 years ago. Clay has been mined in this area in the east of Munich since the 14th century. This clay was then used to make the bricks from which Munich is largely built. Even the bricks used for the Maximilianeum come from here.
WERK17: history becomes a façade design
It is this history that the Berlin-based architecture firm Hild und K referred to when designing a façade for WERK17 that is unmistakably reminiscent of the clay city of Munich. Large-format bricks were inserted into elements made of dyed concrete. “This allowed us to take the coldness out of the concrete,” explains Dionys Ottl from Hild und K. The concrete elements could in turn be arranged in scales like a curtain of slats, creating a lively image of light and shadow in the façade that changes depending on the position of the sun and the perspective. Here, history is given enough space to be experienced and experienced, in the middle of a modern building – the result is a mix of tradition and innovation.
A second architecture prize 2021 goes to the Werksviertel-Mitte
The special design qualities of WERK17 also impressed the jury of the German Brick Award, which has now recognized the building. This is the second architecture prize in which the Munich-based Werksviertel-Mitte has been among the award-winning works this year. At the beginning of 2021, WERK12 was awarded the DAM Prize, which is presented annually by the German Architecture Museum, as the best building in Germany.
“Special architecture that plays with the tension between tradition and modernity, and that touches people and relates them to the place where they are, was and is the basis for the entire planning of Werksviertel-Mitte,” says Josef Glasl, spokesperson for the urban quarter. “We are delighted that our commitment to good architecture has already received so much praise and recognition in 2021.” Like many other buildings in the new Werksviertel-Mitte, the WERK17 is used for multiple purposes. The building houses the gambino Hotel WERKSVIERTEL, the delicatessen Mitte Meer, the tapas restaurant La Tasca Flamenca and the Mariss Bar, a Sardinian restaurant. The building also houses an underground parking garage, the so-called Autosaal.
