Munich, Germany

Forming the nucleus of the Werksviertel-Mitte district, the multifunctional WERK12 is an urban regeneration plan on a former industrial site.

MVRDV’s 7,700m2 mixed-used development is located close to Munich’s East Station stands out with its bold and expressive art façade featuring five-meter-tall verbal expressions found in German comics.

The building is adorned with Interjections and exclamations typical of the comics language and most common urban graffiti; writings that one usually sees near a railway station picked by young graffiti artists and drawn in different sizes and colours.

The new development includes offices, retail, cultural, bar-restaurant, and wellness facilities.

The design of WERK12 combines a simple form, honest materials, and transparent façades.

Users can move around the building in multiple ways: the design’s external circulation core on the building’s northeastern side is supplemented by 3.25-meter-wide terraces that surround each floor of the building.

These are connected by external staircases curling around the building to connect these generous open spaces (a playful reference to one of MVRDV’s most famous early projects, the Dutch Pavilion at the Expo2000 in Hanover).

This public route up the building blurs the distinction between interior and exterior, placing the interior spaces in conversation with exterior balconies. These are additionally finished in the same material as the ground-level sidewalks to emphasise their status as part of the public area of the building.

The façade is animated by an urban art piece developed in tandem with local artists Christian Engelmann and Beate Engl, comprising bold lettering spelling out common expressions taken from the German version of Donald Duck comics.

This 5-meter-tall lettering, and the colloquial nature of the expressions chosen, are a tribute to the graffiti culture and extensive use of signage found on the old site. At night, the appearance of the building is transformed by its illumination strategy.

Simple geometries and honest materials morph into a vibrant lightshow.

“The area of the Werksviertel-Mitte district has already undergone such interesting changes, transforming from a potato factory to a legendary entertainment district,” says founding partner of MVRDV Jacob van Rijs.

“With our design, we wanted to respect and celebrate that history, while also creating a foundation for the next chapter. WERK12 is stylish and cool on one hand, but on the other it doesn’t take itself so seriously – it’s not afraid to say ‘PUH’ to passers-by!”

Architects: MVRDV
Design Team: Jacob van Rijs, Fokke Moerel, Markus Nagler, Roy Sieljes, Jonathan Schuster, and Sven Thorissen
Co-Architects: N-V-O Nuyken von Oefele Architekten BDA
Artists: Antonio Luca Coco, Kirill Emelianov, Pavlos Ventouris
Client: OTEC GmbH & Co. KG
Photographers: Ossip van Duivenbode