The ever-growing demand for housing in Munich means that developers are looking to urban niches, brownfield sites and green spaces for prime real estate. Competitive demand for housing often results in these spaces, which provide a refuge for urban wildlife, being sold to developers and transformed into dense neighbourhoods that promise an eco-social vision combining the convenience of modern living with biodiversity. The selling point of such development projects is that their design enables biodiversity to flourish. But what if the resulting development leaves behind only a fraction of the original biodiversity?

This winter semester, 2025–26, GTLA* is asking students to reconsider the outcome of such designs by prioritising the existing greenery in the forthcoming Eggarten-Siedlung development in Feldmoching, Munich, as a case study. The aim is to provide an alternative, radical ecological positive design solution to the winning entry in the 2020 competition by Studio Wessendorf and Atelier Loidl.

The studio will generate innovative design ideas by answering the following questions:

+ What kind of building structures arise by respecting the existing urban canopy?

+ Knowing that every felled tree (over 60 cm in circumference) must be compensated for by another, what vegetation structures arise?

+ How will the design requirements impact the consideration of the building envelope in the design?

+ How can the Eggarten-Siedlung continue to act as an urban wilderness corridor despite new developments?

Students must navigate a balance between providing enough space for inhabitants and socio-economic uses, while ensuring that the groundwater recharge and integrity of the current vegetation are not compromised. To support students in this endeavour, a minimum and maximum number of inhabitants will be provided for whom housing units must be created, along with a broad range of socio-economic uses needed for the district.

The corresponding compulsory excursion will take us to Paris from the 23rd to the 28th of October and will cost approximately 320 euros per person (including train ride, accommodation and breakfast). The aim of the trip is to seek inspiration in a European capital that is dealing with issues such as unaffordable housing and the need for densification and green spaces. During the trip, we will explore green spaces and garden city typologies and new districts, paying close attention to their density, qualities and potential.

Additionally, on the 3rd of November, we will visit the Eggarten-Siedlung.

Studio sessions take place on Mondays at the institute in Freising, in room E42.

We welcome students from the bachelor’s (7th semester), bachelor’s thesis and master’s landscape architecture to participate in this studio.