An urban hop plantation naturally fits in well with the beer metropolis. The real reason why the umbels are about to ripen on a backyard facade on Schwanthalerstraße is not because of the spice, but because of the rapid growth: the tendrils manage up to ten centimeters a day – fast enough to still frame the bare wall in summer to green a short but creative and varied interim use.
The listed building at Schwanthalerstraße 57 was built 110 years ago by the tire manufacturer Continental. The telecommunications office later moved here, followed by the Sabel Business Schools until 2016. The Starnberg real estate developer Ehrlich + Klein bought here and in the eastern neighboring building number 55 at the end of 2021 and is planning offices, retail, gastronomy and small trades. The large variant of a freshly submitted preliminary building application also includes the neighboring house number 53, where apartments could be built.
The inner courtyard of the building is to be greened, but there is not much time for that.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
If the local building commission gives the green light quickly, there will probably only be time for interim use until the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023. It has been given a name full of allusions, as is customary in the industry: “Franzi” refers, in gendered terms, to Franz Marc. The great Expressionist spent part of his youth in house number 55, which is commemorated by a plaque. The Green City experts involved with the Hopfenwand and other greening ideas work together with the FreiRaum-Viertel initiative and the broke.today group under the label.
The creative nomads were also active in other places in Munich
The artist collective is moving here from the machine hall of the Schwabing hospital, which will soon be converted into office lofts, also by Ehrlich + Klein. Before that, the creative nomads worked in the Kaufinger-Tor-Passage and in Steinheilstraße in Maxvorstadt, among other places. They named their short-term domicile there “Traphouse”, which could be roughly translated as “drug hole”.
Consumption or even trade in illegal substances in an official building for temporary use would certainly not have been a good idea – the name plays rather ironically with the aesthetics of a scene that likes to do something a little more broken than it really is. And maybe also a little bit because not all of the graffiti artists in the group were always on completely legal ground. Although sprayers belong to the hard core, broke.today has long had creative people of all kinds, from sculptors to artisans and fashion designers to photographers, and authors are also welcome.
What the artists have in common is that, as “broke.today” already says, they are not (yet) among the big earners in their genre and can really use free workspaces. A creative starting point for “young people who don’t yet have a CV, a past, or a studio,” is how Fillin Guas, one of the group’s founders and something of their real estate scout, describes the idea, always on the lookout for the next empty one standing buildings and cooperative owners.
They have always found each other. Nevertheless, the artists would be happy to receive help from a municipal interim use officer. Even better would be spaces that the city provides directly, perhaps for four or five years. In the meantime, you just settle in for a few months. Guas and his colleague Daniele Faggiotto are currently building a bar on the top floor for the shared studio. Not around the clock, but the house is open to visitors when there are as many exhibitions as possible. Details can be found on the group’s Instagram channel.
All the furniture that is lying around has been saved from bulky waste.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In the meantime, the “FreiRaum” activists are building street furniture under the studio, which they used last summer to make Landwehrstrasse more homely – all made of old wood, of course. In general, “upcycling” is the highest principle. Everything in the furniture here has been saved from bulky waste, even if it were sometimes easier or even cheaper to drive to the Swedish furniture store, says Marco Eisenack, who coordinates the temporary use.
With a local think tank (“QuartiersLab”), “Franzi” will go public from May 10th. Exhibitions, discussion events and much more follow. On July 22, the project will also take part in the flea markets.