New Construction: Panorama Towers Arnulfpark and Central & Park MK4 in Munich
The challenge: to create sophisticated architecture for residential and commercial use on two adjacent 400-meter-long construction sites, directly adjacent to the track yard of Munich Central Station, in a cost-effective, highly flexible, and sustainable manner. The challenges: a main sewer line and a telecommunications corridor running across the site had to be covered in a way that allowed for load-free support and future maintenance. And the magnetic track for the Transrapid, planned to run beneath the building, had to be taken into account.
Another hurdle was “stabilizing the buildings.” For the two 13-story residential high-rises, MK3 and MK4—which feature a two-story underground parking garage and are known as the “Panorama Towers”—vibrations from the adjacent rail lines had to be prevented. The solution for vibration decoupling consists of damping mats and elastomeric bearings on the walls in the basement levels and beneath the floor slab, which were calibrated in specific areas according to the prevailing pressures. The foundation consists of a floor slab up to 1.5 m thick, with the underground parking garage supported by a beam system. Load transfer to the upper floors is achieved via facade columns and load-bearing partition walls. Since the buildings extend up to 7.50 m into the groundwater table, a waterproof construction for the basement levels was required.
The MK4 Central Park commercial complex comprises commercial and administrative buildings featuring a 3-story podium, three 7-story towers, and two basement levels with an underground parking garage and a sunken mechanical floor, also constructed as waterproof structures. The spans of the partially prestressed flat slabs in the reinforced concrete skeleton structure measure up to 8.4 m, with a slab thickness of 28 cm. Bracing was provided by service cores. Concrete core activation and the use of geothermal energy enable efficient and renewable climate control.
The curtain-wall facade made of natural stone was nominated for the German Natural Stone Award.