Kirchheim is not yet known as an urban settlement, the highest points in the townscape are the two church towers, which rise idyllically above the community parts. In the foreseeable future, however, that could change: On Tuesday evening, planners presented the structural concept for the planned redesign of the Heimstetten commercial area between Ammerthalstraße and the A 99 motorway to the municipal council. The collection of ideas also includes the possibility of erecting several buildings that are up to 60 meters high.
As “Campus Heimstetten”, the area on the outskirts, which is currently used as a conventional commercial area, is to become a sustainable, modern district, as explained by Josef Glasl, managing director of the Urkern Gesellschaft für Urbanes, which was involved in the planning. The aim is to “set an innovative exclamation point in terms of design” with the new concept. That includes a lot of green. For example, the planners imagine roof gardens with intensive planting that should also be accessible to the residents of Kirchheim.
There is a certain skepticism among the Kirchheim municipal councillors
Similar to the Kirchheim campus – the commercial area on Merowingerstraße, which is also to be upgraded in the coming years – a mixture of living areas is also planned for the Heimstetten campus: the new quarter is not to be purely a commercial area, but also company housing and, among other things, service and accommodate gastronomy offers. According to architect Michael Wimmer from Büro 03-Architekten, the quarter should also be attractive for visitors who do not work there.
The free spaces in the east of Munich are known to be limited, “that’s why we propose stacking them,” explained architect Wimmer to the members of the municipal council. According to him, the buildings of different heights should create an “interesting spatial situation”. According to Glasl, the maximum height of 60 meters for some houses, which is provided for in the concept, will be examined again in detail. It could well be that the buildings will be lower, but the possibility of maximum development was openly communicated from the start. “Of course, there shouldn’t be a Little Manhattan in Heimstetten,” said the planner to the SZ. “We’ll look at what height is most suitable for the location. That has to fit into the whole.”
Nevertheless: 60 meter high buildings in Heimstetten – this prospect takes some getting used to for many local politicians, even if they support the plans in principle. Not all expressed themselves in the municipal council meeting as directly as Berit Vogel (Greens), who described the maximum possible amount as “completely inappropriate”. However, a certain skepticism among the municipal councils was noticeable, many asked for comparative values and visualizations. The planners want to create such sketches according to their own statements and present them to the municipal council in the coming weeks before the development plan is expected to be discussed in November.