Innovative forms of living, yes, but which ones and for whom? This question will occupy the Graefelfingen municipal councils in the next step, which is pending on the site of the former Doemens brewery academy. A communal or cooperative housing project has long been considered. How exactly something like this could look like is to be clarified by a participation process that the main committee of the municipal council specified on Tuesday.
The key data have been around for a long time: up to 44 residential units can be built on the 3400 square meter property in Stefanusstrasse, the former headquarters of the Doemens Brewery Academy. The existing training building is to be converted into apartments. These urban planning parameters are incorporated into a development plan that is being developed in parallel with the concept for the type of housing.
The municipality has had the entire area since the spring of last year; before that it was only the owner of half of the property. The idea of launching an alternative residential project that includes affordable rents therefore initially only related to half of the property. One of the questions that needs to be clarified is whether the plan should now also be extended to the entire area.
Interest groups have formed
Since the former Doemens site was in the hands of the community and what could be realized on it was made public, interest groups have formed in Graefelfing: The association “Friends of the Garden City Graefelfing” was founded, consisting primarily of members who live in the neighborhood live and fear too dense and too urban development and traffic pollution. Another group is the “Interest Group Alte Brauakademie”, which is currently being established as an association. It is chaired by a dual leadership made up of the architect Patricia Young-Balik and the municipal council and third mayor Martin Feldner (Green / Independent List). The interest group wants to develop a concept for the residential use of the area. On top of that, Gemeindebau Gräfelfing, the communal housing company of the municipality, has expressed an interest in realizing new forms of living on the site.
All ideas currently in circulation should be taken into account and brought together via the participation process. Mayor Peter Köstler (CSU) would like to win Stattbau München GmbH as an external partner to lead the process. Councilor Petra Schmid (CSU) drew attention to the danger of engaging in “clientele politics” in the process. The apartments should not be reserved for a specific interest group. This is exactly what the process should clarify, emphasized Martin Felder: For whom the apartments should be, what suits Graefelfing, should be the result of the process. It depends on a “healthy mixture”. All age groups should be taken into account. Once these questions have been clarified, the next step is an architectural competition to implement the “social core”, as Feldner put it, structurally.