It’s tight in here. There are still folded boxes on the shelves along the wall. In the middle of the small room, employees are packing food and souvenirs; they belong to the “E-Commerce” department at Feinkost Käfer. Her workplace is at the back of the store on Prinzregentenstrasse and then on the first floor. Business is going well, says Michael Käfer, “it would help us if we could enlarge this by 30 square meters”.
To understand what Käfer and his real estate agent are planning, you have to look at the building from the outside, in the courtyard of the block that stretches like a piece of cake from Prinzregentenstrasse to Schumannstrasse and Trogerstrasse to the rear. In addition to apartment windows and ventilation systems from Käfer’s shop and restaurant, you can see an extension on the ground floor.
Michael Käfer explains that there used to be a cinema here in the courtyard. When he joined the company in the 1970s, “the kitchen for the party service was on the ground floor.” But of course that soon became much too cramped.
In the meantime, Käfer’s employees have created an enchanted herb garden on the roof of that extension, and the extension also has a small structure – in which the 200 to 300 packages are packed per day. A large fire wall extends above it, to which the new building is to be attached. Three small apartments, each around 60 square meters, are to be built above the enlarged e-commerce department.
The planned new building is to be connected to the fire wall.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
All in all, a rather small construction project by Munich standards, which would also not be visible from the public space. Nevertheless, it was recently an issue in the urban design commission, which advises the city on building projects of particular importance. The reasons for this were that the building site is part of the Bogenhausen monument ensemble and is also in the immediate vicinity of individual listed houses. In addition, the local building commission (LBK), which is responsible for the building permit, asked the commission for advice because of the narrow situation in the backyard and because of the unconventional shape of the building.
It is actually a special structure with landings, sloping sides and external stairs, designed by architect Muck Petzet and his office. In his presentation, he himself spoke of “a small stylistic blossom” and an “etude in the right to space”. Because the building legislation makes precise regulations about the distances that a new house must have to neighboring buildings, which makes things particularly complicated in a narrow backyard. That’s why the building was designed “as a kind of cone,” explained Petzet.
First draft for the planned expansion of the shop in the backyard on Prinzregentenstrasse/Schumannstrasse in Bogenhausen.
(Photo: Muck Petzet Architects)
The architect went on to explain that one could well imagine constructing the building as a solid wood construction, the facade could consist of wooden shingles, for example, and a conceivable color would be green. He also emphasized that the three apartments with a total of 180 square meters “would not be luxury lofts”, the upper one could have a gallery. Michael Käfer, who operates as the builder with his Scarabeus property company mbH und Co.KG, says the apartments are intended for the rental market.
The Commission agreed in principle to the project. The landscape architect Doris Grabner (Freising) spoke of a “successful densification project. Peter Brückner, architect from Tirschenreuth, emphasized the “responsibility” associated with a project in such a tight situation, “it is crucial that a real sculptural quality is created in the end”.
However, he was bothered by the two flights of stairs and he demanded that the existing buildings be included, “that the upper part not just sit on it like a parasite”. In its conclusion, the commission basically gave its approval for the “exciting project”, but warned that its suggestions should be incorporated.