Free-floating and functional

Even after more than 50 years, the famous acrylic glass tent roof on Munich’s Olympic Stadium continues to impress. The design by Günter Behnisch and Frei Otto still has the potential to overshadow new builds nearby, despite its transparency and sense of lightness. Conversely, there is also the risk that this architectural heritage will pale in comparison when confronted by neighbouring new projects. Either way, integrating fresh designs into this context is a complex challenge that the team of architects at Dietrich Untertrifaller have expertly mastered with their new TUM Campus.

A superlative for timber construction

Adopting the same approach as the 1972 Olympic structures, the roof of the TUM Campus plays a significant role in the overall design. This 19-metre cantilevered canopy seems to float effortlessly above the running track over a length of 153 metres. Besides acting as a protective covering over the spectator stands, it also provides ideal conditions for the sports labs on the ground floor as sports performances can be measured here with less exposure to the weather. The design decisions were therefore all clearly taken with functional considerations in mind.

The whole complex, which houses the TUM School of Medicine and Health – a faculty of Munich Technical University – was Europe’s largest timber construction when it was first developed. It opened in 2023 and is now used by 125,000 students and 30,000 university staff. With the reticence of its design and the horizontal focus, it slots almost naturally into the Olympic setting without trying to compete with its iconic surroundings.

Connected by the rue interieure

“‘Light, freshness, generosity’: To this day, the slogan of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games still applies to the TUM School of Medicine and Health in Munich’s listed Olympic Park,” the architects explain in their concept. Based in Bregenz, the architectural studio Dietrich Untertrifaller – which has branch offices in Vienna, Munich, Paris and St. Gallen – won the competition together with landscape architects Balliana-Schubert from Zurich.

While the designs by other competitors were inspired formally by the iconic tent roof or conceal the buildings under a grassed roof, the winning design is reduced to the essentials. The description continues: “The clearly structured complex is divided into two hall and institute clusters along a central access axis. This ‘rue interieure’ runs through the entire building from east to west”, which also creates a communication zone. Floor-to-ceiling glazing allows a clear view of the individual sports halls, generating transparent and comprehensible space.

Timber construction benefits fire safety

The costs were a crucial reason for selecting this design, as architect Much Untertrifaller explained to “Detail” magazine: “Our design was by far the most affordable. Wood is sustainable and has been affordable until now because unlike steel, it does not have to be protected with fire-prevention coatings.” Whereas fire safety used to be the greatest obstacle for timber building, wood is now considered a safety benefit in this respect. Unlike steel, timber allows burning to be controlled and a protective charcoal layer also forms on the surface of the wood. Therefore, the core of loadbearing structures is protected from harm for a long time.

The secret behind this spectacular projecting roof, which requires no additional supports, is a special lightweight construction made of prefabricated glulam parts from timber engineers Rubner Holzbau. The individual prefabricated elements are 28 metres long and 3.75 metres wide, and consist of commercially available veneer plywood and glulam ribs. These were glued together at the factory to form box girder elements with high rigidity and minimal self-weight, which enabled economically justifiable production costs.

Hall cluster built in two months

The TUM Campus has an overall hybrid design. While some sections – such as the basement and central access axis – use reinforced concrete, the sports halls, institute areas and the entire roof are designed with timber. The high degree of prefabrication also enabled the timber elements to be assembled quickly. According to the project description: “With perfect logistics for planning, production, delivery and assembly, the hall clusters were erected in just two months.”

However, the architects’ selection of materials followed a different line of thought. “Timber was chosen to preserve the link between landscape and architecture,” they say. The same link is established by the listed Olympic structures.

Frei Otto, whose visionary Multihalle in Mannheim is undergoing extensive renovation, was continually on the search for new and free forms of construction. The new TUM Campus uses the lightness of a timber design and adopts this pioneering spirit, showing how a large building project can be implemented with an unequivocal, resource-friendly approach. It is a self-assured addition to the Olympiapark and a structure that expresses the current architectural zeitgeist. While maintaining sensitivity for the context and conscious handling of planetary limits.

The TU Munich Campus won the Austrian Green Planet Building Award and was shortlisted for the DAM Preis 2024.

Text: Gertraud Gerst
Translation: Rosemary Bridger-Lippe
Photos: Aldo Amoretti, Marcus Buck, David Matthiessen