This prestigious project was postponed two years ago, but it is now clear that the renovation and commissioning of the listed barrel hall in the Creative Quarter will be postponed again – an opening is now not in sight before 2028. During repair work on the concrete structure of the hall, the experts discovered further damage to the building structure: load-bearing components were massively affected by nitrate pollution.
The city’s building department speaks of an “extremely unusual pattern of damage” and has now developed a renovation concept that is intended to ensure the preservation of the listed building structure. In contrast to the chloride pollution that often occurs – such as road salt in underground car parks, which then causes the reinforcing steel to rust – nitrate makes the reinforcement, i.e. the reinforcement of components to increase the load-bearing capacity, brittle. According to construction officer Jeanne-Marie Ehbauer, this means that the reinforcing steel can break in individual places without notice. The damage cannot be seen from the outside; the authorities cite the old elephant house in the Hellabrunn Zoo as the only known comparable case. Its concrete components, including the historic reinforced concrete dome, even had to be completely demolished.
For the construction officer, the general repair of the barrel hall and the neighboring Jutierhalle is “one of the most important ongoing cultural-political construction projects in the state capital of Munich.” It was no coincidence that the building department had budgeted around 128 million euros for the renovation of the two industrial monuments – but the new damage had not yet been taken into account. However, the authority assumes that the costs for the additional measures are covered by the risk reserve.
On-site appointment at the Tonhalle: City Director Detlev Langer, construction officer Jeanne-Marie Ehbauer and the chairwoman of the Neuhausen-Nymphenburg district committee Anna Hanusch from the Greens.
(Photo: Construction Department)
106 meters long and 20 meters wide: The start of construction on the barrel hall will be delayed because reinforcement parts have to be reinforced or replaced.
(Photo: Construction Department)
After discovering the damage to the supporting structure of the 106 meter long and 20 meter wide barrel hall, the construction department called in the engineering office that also worked on the elephant house in Hellabrunn. The experts plan to add additional steel to the concrete or to completely replace damaged reinforcement parts. In addition, tension bands are to be replaced or replaced and new foundations and supports are to be built, among other things. The start of construction in the barrel hall is therefore expected to be postponed until September 2024. The regular shell construction and expansion can only begin in April 2025; the barrel hall is not expected to be completed until April 2028 – 20 months later than previously planned.
In the jutier hall, however, everything continues to go according to plan; no nitrate contamination has been detected there. The playing areas between the two halls can also probably be put into operation once the jutier hall is completed. The unexpected damage also has no impact on the underground car park or the creation of the public green space.
The two halls, built in 1926, are the heart of the new creative quarter on Leonrodplatz. On the former 20-hectare barracks site between Dachauer, Schwer-Reiterstrasse, Heßstrasse and Lothstrasse in Schwabing and Neuhausen, apartments, event venues, a start-up and innovation center for technology-oriented companies as well as art and cultural spaces are being built alongside a primary school.
The barrel hall, where the city’s waterworks once stored their pipes, is intended to become a central performance venue for the independent theater scene in Munich. In return, it gets a 780 square meter event hall on the ground floor, which can accommodate a thousand visitors, an open foyer in which the cantilevered reinforced concrete structure is visible, and a spacious catering area. The approximately 2,000 square meter Jutierhalle, previously used as a production facility for water and gas supply pipes, will in future house the art and creative industries.