It’s really practical to have a very large, even gigantic hall in our small town where you can store a lot. Problems, dreams, quarrels – everything quickly under the all-spanning concrete vault, so that Munich seems nice and tidy. The parcel post hall, a striking construction next to the Friedenheimer Bridge, has so far been conspicuous as a problem hall – at least for those people who have a problem with high buildings because they want to keep their million-dollar village. Because the listed hall was bought by an investor who wants to build two mini skyscrapers next to it so that the operation is somehow worthwhile. But also a problem hall because it will soon be empty – and then what do you put in there?
Wingspan 150 meters, length 125 meters – that leaves room for a lot. In order to make this 20,000 square meter hall somehow comprehensible, all sorts of comparisons are used: it is two soccer fields big, or 30 tennis courts. You just have to calculate how many sidewalk cafés, cargo bike parking spaces or Oktoberfest festivals fit in there. That would be closer to the people, after all, a public vote is pending for a “pulsating, oscillating, vibrating” use (original sound of the city planning officer) of the “gigantic, titanic, yes wonderful” hall (original sound of the SZ architecture critic).
“Gigantic, titanic, yes wonderful” – the former parcel post hall with its sweeping arch construction was built between 1965 and 1969.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Despite these dithyrambic tones, the project should be approached soberly and the problems of the coming decades solved in one fell swoop or under one roof: if the State Opera is to move in there in 2030 because its building needs to be completely renovated, the Residenztheater can go with it. Its walls are so dilapidated that director Andreas Beck no longer dares to hammer in a nail. One floor below he could hammer as much as he wanted and nobody would hear it. If the investor is not allowed to build high, he could go really deep.
A concert hall also fits underneath, then this pause for thought is finally over. And yes, maybe there will still be room under the concrete roof, i.e. under the opera, under the Resi and under the concert hall, in the ground, for a small trade tax oasis, then the investor would no longer have to travel from Neuhausen to Grünwald with his briefcase. Geothermal energy can also be tapped at depth, wind turbines fit on top of the hall roof, after all there are no Norwegian reindeer running around there – the image problem of the public utility and the energy problems of a big city would have been solved.
What still has to be cleared up so that there can finally be peace: the green and red cycle paths – in addition to 15 train tracks that lead into the hall, nobody really notices them. And the regular route, of course, is best docked here as well. Quite a few apartments still have to be on the 30 tennis courts because rents have just gone up again. Then you build a nice little town hall under the vault, so that the man who doesn’t want to stop being mayor can continue to rule there forever.
“All for the hall” is far too modest as a motto for the parcel post hall, it has to be the hall for everything.