Gemeinnützige Baugenossenschaft Grünwald e.G. has been providing housing for its members in the municipality of Grünwald since it was founded in 1949. This is interesting because the neighbourhood is better known for expensive villas and prominent residents than for buildings owned by a non-profit cooperative. The existing buildings along Oberhachinger-, Josef-Sammer-, Josef-Kogler-, Josef-Würth- and Fritz-Kneidl-Straße, which date back to 1950 and comprise 26 houses, 155 residential units and the administrative office of the building cooperative, were successively demolished between 2016 and 2023 and reorganised as a neighbourhood. The aim was to create living areas with a lively and intact neighbourhood in which different ways of life, from single households to large families, from young to old, come together. The result is sustainable and energy-efficient buildings that also minimise life cycle costs with maintenance and repair.

Urban development

The strengthening of cooperative living is a timely topic. In line with this, a community- and identity-building motif was developed in terms of urban planning, with buildings consisting of 10 to 14 residential units that are very similar with small variations. The purchase of the street that previously divided the area and its demolition has created a large, park-like, car-free plot of 2 hectares, on which the 14 residential buildings are arranged in an open structure. Compact volumes are grouped around three communal courtyards, forming manageable, networked units. The special feature is the large, contiguous open space without fences, which can also be seen as a symbol of the cooperative's openness towards the otherwise closed surrounding development.

“This entry demonstrates a high level of independence regarding urban structure and open space design. Informally arranged buildings are grouped around 3 communal areas, thus forming clearly manageable yet interconnected units. The open spaces are laid out like a park and lead one to expect pleasant openness and transparency … The offset arrangement of the privately used garden areas offers generous and relatively undisturbed residential quality. Despite the unusual and to a large extent identity-forming building structure, the whole area harmonises excellently with its environs and enriches them through a high degree of transparency and greenery.

The well-structured ground-plan typology is continued consistently through the storeys, thus promising economic viability. Some of the outer walls are slanting, which forms individual dwelling types and lends sculptural elegance to the buildings in the form of the diagonally ascending eaves. … A very positive feature is that the living rooms, situated as they are in the building’s corners, face two different directions. …

The work is a surprising and positive contribution to contemporary living, demonstrating its particular qualities in the formation of community-building activities and in the unusual building configuration in a park-like open space.” (Excerpt from the jury’s assessment in the competition of September 27, 2013)

Grün Wald Haus: conversion of a detached house

Starting with the classic building type of a detached house with a gabled roof, the buildings are transformed into a crystalline building – a villa – using simple means. The quality of the cooperative residential concept is reflected in the well-thought-out floor plans. Spacious access zones on the ground floor serve as a distributor within the house and, as an informal communication space, form a transition between living and free space. These compact and similar buildings can be implemented in an ecologically sensible way and accommodate the cooperative concept and the construction phases in their realisation.

The shape of the building in its sculptural elegance presents itself with a rough-plastered façade and a natural beige colour. Due to the different angles of the houses, shadows have a different effect on the plaster of each house. The differences between the buildings also appear thanks to the angle of the slanting reveals to the sun. The houses clearly belong to a community or cooperative but are still slightly different from each other.

Thus, a subtle interplay is created with a well-known building form in a slightly modified form. Likewise, the window openings are a familiar motif with slightly modified proportions. This interplay with quotations continues with the tiled gable roof.
The simplicity with which diversity is created from a single type is also reflected in the choice of construction. Solid single-shell brick walls, simple details and a reduced colour palette in the design create the appearance of timeless durability.