In the competition for the design of the B2 tunnel portals, six architectural offices submitted work, three designs received prizes. But none of them can completely convince the jurors and the Weilheim State Building Authority.
The big hit was not there, but the jury was nevertheless satisfied: With two second and one third place, a 21-member jury entered the competition for the design of the portals, an emergency exit, the ventilation chimney in the castle garden and the company building for the B2- Tunnel decided. The three award-winning designs – a total of six offices took part in the competition – were presented to the Starnberg building committee last Thursday. Which of the works will be realized in whole or in part at the end, however, is completely open. According to city architect Stefan Weinl, all designs have “strengths, but also weaknesses”.
Color accents were also suggested and rejected.
(Photo: State Building Authority)
True to the motto: “If a tunnel is already being built below, it should at least look good on the top,” the Starnberg City Council, headed by former Mayor Eva Pfister (formerly John), urged the visible structural tunnel elements on the surface to be designed in an attractive manner . The Weilheim State Building Authority agreed to this. In May 2020 the city council approved the criteria, and at the end of April an EU-wide implementation competition was announced. It may be due to the lack of time that the designs did not necessarily meet the technical requirements of the state building authority: None of the competition participants was able to fully convince the jury with regard to the required criteria. “In some cases, for example, changes were made to the planned engineering structures as part of the drafts,” explained Raphael Zuber, the head of the tunnel construction department, “which are not compatible with the advanced building law”. And Weinl said: “None of the contributions actually solved all the tasks convincingly.”
It is also questionable whether a glass-covered exhaust air chimney can be implemented.
(Photo: State Building Authority)
Nevertheless, according to Zuber, the competition provided an important impetus for further processing of the design elements on the tunnel. All three award-winning designs rely on completely different design elements. The work by “Obermeyer Koch + Partner Architects” from Munich, which was endowed with 15,000 euros in second place, provides for a metal mesh in the area of the tunnel portals and a company building with a wooden slat structure. Particularly creative: the ventilation chimney in the palace garden should – if technically feasible – be given a glass cladding. The design by “Lechner – Lechner Architekten GmbH” (Traunstein) landed in second place: it relies on greenery in the area of the portals, the access ramps themselves are simply set off with a dark color. The company building is reminiscent of an Upper Bavarian barn, the ventilation chimney could be planted with a trellis. However, the jury criticized the exemplary design of the emergency exit with seating: This solution did not meet the technical requirements, they said. Third place – a design by the British firm “DKFS Architects” from London, endowed with 12,000 euros – favors a glacier-like covering of the portals, which is formally the most attractive, but also has a crucial flaw: it does not correspond to the work plan and is thus not feasible, according to the tunnel planners.
Even a glacier-like overburden did not convince the jury.
(Photo: State Building Authority)
The Weilheim State Building Authority now wants to conduct further negotiations with all three award winners. In addition to the competition result, which takes up to 40 percent into account, fees and the potential for change in the designs are decisive criteria. The federal government is responsible for deciding on the design of the tunnel elements. The construction costs – most recently a sum of 320.5 million euros was mentioned – should increase further. All competition entries can be found on the website of the State Building Authority at www.stbawm.bayern.de. For city architect Weinl, however, with a critical look at the drafts, it is already clear: “It will hardly turn out like this.”