Munich: Shaping The Future

By Federico Mastrorilli - 16 December 2009

Munich’s geographical position, its history, population and close ties with the world economy come together to make the Bavaria capital a dynamic, forward looking city. Which is why even in a crisis year like 2008, and despite a slight fall and forecasts of a few blips in the future, the real estate market has remained the most buoyant in Germany thanks to sustained demand for office space.
Munich has a long urban-planning history going back to the early 20th century. Subsequent development was implemented with the 1963 plan, which then evolved into the urban policies of 1975 and 1983. On each occasion, spatial development was the child of its times and served the city well. The latest 1998 plan is an integrated urban masterplan whose main characteristics are flexibility and feasibility. Known as Perspective Munich, the plan’s key aim at the end of the Nineties was to manage urban expansion better.
A major feature of this long-term strategy is to ensure sufficient
built-in flexibility to enable integrations and updates in the wake of new collective requirements. Indeed its versatility and adaptability have made Perspective Munich a model to be imitated by future generations wanting to follow the European City concept of creating welcoming, tolerant and integrated centres.
An example of this is the Munich Housing Programme which is creating 7,000 new flats every year, 1,800 of them subsidized. Its ruling policy is to strengthen and preserve social peace.
The secret of the plan’s success lies in its strictly linear “principle - project and objective” approach. First the principle and basic philosophy on which the whole undertaking rests is determined without regard for possible contingent impediments. The subsequent project takes into account practical issues and is discussed with the local community. The objective is stated on the basis of real-life situations and sets out the concrete aims to be reached within specified timeframes and...