It’s a diamond shaped block, with rounded corners and a slight waist in the middle. The new building with the dark facade is to be 60 meters high. The plans for another administrative center of the Hypovereinsbank (HVB) in addition to the high-rise building from the 1970s that characterizes the cityscape are entering another round: the architecture competition has now been won by the Sauerbruch Hutton office from Berlin together with the landscape architects MDP Michael Desvigne Paysagiste, Paris. The bank’s head of real estate, Peter Weidenhöfer, says that a “distinctive district sign” should be created at the Leuchtenbergring S-Bahn station.
With its resource-saving hybrid construction and the highest proportion of photovoltaic surfaces of all competition entries, the winning design corresponds most clearly to the sustainability goals of the Unicredit Group, to which the Hypovereinsbank belongs. Photovoltaic elements are even installed in the facade, which are supposed to deliver a high energy yield.
For Weidenhöfer, sustainability also means that as little artificial lighting as possible is required in the house. The office and communication areas all receive daylight. It was also crucial that diverse, varied rooms that promoted communication could be created in the new headquarters with its 14 full floors and atria in the middle area.
One reacted to the debate on the future of the working world, said architect David Wegener from Sauerbruch Hutton. The office is certainly no longer the main workplace, but an important social meeting place. A possibility for group work – with rooms that can be designed flexibly.
Understatement above the tunnel mouth
The new HVB headquarters above the tunnel mouth of the Leuchtenbergring and opposite the 50-meter-high ensemble of “Ten Towers” and the 63-meter-high round tower of the building department building do not want to boast with their architectural design in the area, said Wegener. They rely more on understatement and on the fact that the project fits in well. City planning officer Elisabeth Merk welcomed the project in a written statement. The composition of the winning design appears coherent from a distance, is independent and concise in all directions. The new building fits very well into the cityscape.
With buildings such as the ADAC headquarters, the Brandhorst Museum in Maxvorstadt, the office buildings of the Munich Re insurance company on Berliner Strasse and a residential building on Queen Street, the Sauerbruch Hutton office has already made strong impressions with the striking color accents on the facades found attention. The future HVB headquarters looks much less spectacular with its uniform black appearance. Elegance, understatement and high “inner values” have entered into a good connection, says Wegener: “The aha effect only comes when you take a closer look.”
The new building is expected to be completed before the end of this decade
At the end of 2021, HVB presented a “feasibility study” (Weidenhöfer) for the property. Architects Henn submitted the design for a 72 meter high complex of stacked cubes. This brought movement into the debate about what could become of the area between Haidenauplatz and the Mittlerer Ring, which has been idle for many years. Finally, a competition was announced to examine variants and to see what else was structurally possible at this point, says Weidenhöfer.
The HVB real estate boss hopes that the new Sauerbruch Hutton building will be completed before the end of this decade. There are already concepts for the question of what the long-term urban development around Haidenauplatz could look like. The Allmann Wappner office in Munich won the ideas competition. All competition results are on display at the Hypovereinsbank, Kardinal-Faulhaber-Strasse 14, until May 19 during normal bank opening hours.