Sugar Valley
Transforming the former Siemens factories into a mixed, nature-based neighborhood in Munich.
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Franziska Meisel
Head of Norwegian Market, Associate Partner, Landscape Architect, Urbanist
Location
Munich, Germany
Size
47,000 m2
Year
2021 — 2034
Client
Salvis
Role
Planner & lead landscape architect
Partners & Collaborators
KCAP, COBE
Challenges
Typology
Services
Sugar Valley is one of Munich’s largest and most ambitious urban development projects, transforming an old industrial area into a new, mixed, and nature-based neighborhood.
The project’s declared vision is to create ‘the neighborhood of the future’ and one of Germany’s most sustainable neighborhoods – for example by making the development 100% carbon neutral.
“In Sugar Valley, we are integrating buildings, infrastructure, rainwater management, microclimate, and outdoor spaces into one big comprehensive plan. By reusing the existing industrial structures, materials, and atmospheres and creating a large, car-free city floor, the neighborhood gains a completely new identity in Munich.”
— Franziska Meisel, Associate Partner, SLA
The Sugar Valley site includes Siemens’ former factories and constitutes a 47,000 m2 industrial area in the southwest of Munich.
Eleven buildings are being transformed to accommodate a variety of uses – from work to living, from shopping to gastronomy to leisure activities and event venues with a total of 150,000m2 of usable space and three 80m high-rise buildings.
When completed, the district is planned to contain more than 20,000 m2 of green and publicly accessible outdoor spaces, including a 400 m-long blue-green ‘city nature axis’ that follows the main route of the former factories.
The public space and nature design has been central to the plan’s ambition to maximize the neighborhood’s important ecosystem services:
The landscape is designed with inspiration from the Alps and Munich’s surrounding valleys, ensuring that the project supports the positive development of local biodiversity.
By optimally positioning buildings, urban spaces, green park areas, and trees in relation to each other, we create a natural microclimate that absorbs, cleans, and alleviates rainwater during torrential downpours, shields against the cold wind in winter, and minimizes urban heat islands when summer heat waves hit – a problem that is only getting worse in southern Germany.
Furthermore, Sugar Valley’s landscape and urban spaces also create an optimal setting for a varied and active city life with informal meeting places, prioritized pedestrian and bicycle paths, outdoor seating, and a large food hall for local goods and producers.
The German real estate developer Salvis is behind the Sugar Valley project.
The master plan for Sugar Valley is designed by SLA in collaboration with Dutch KCAP and Danish COBE. The landscape is designed by SLA in collaboration with local German landscape architect MGK.