Situa­tion

The contract for buil­ding the new multi­pur­pose sports arena on the site of the former Olympic cycling track stadium in Munich Olympic Park was awarded to 3XN Archi­tects of Copen­hagen, Denmark, toge­ther with Latz + Partner, a German land­scape and urban plan­ning firm. The sports arena, with match seating of up to 11,500, will be the future home of German basket­ball cham­pions FC Bayern Munich and German ice hockey cham­pions Munich Red Bulls.

To improve the local sports infra­struc­ture for schools, amateur clubs and young talents, three addi­tional canopied ice rinks will be built next to the sports arena as trai­ning faci­li­ties and for recrea­tional use. Ther­e­fore, a compre­hen­sive agree­ment on guaran­teed opening times for the ice rinks has been closed with the City of Munich. The buil­ding owner of the project is Red Bull Stadion München GmbH.

Soli­taire

SAP Garden will replace the Olympic Velo­drome at the same place.

The new sports arena is a sepa­rate oval struc­ture that natu­rally and respectfully melds into the world-famous Olympic Park with its many iconic buil­dings. This impres­sion is enhanced by the green roof and vertical facade struc­ture.

The facade is domi­nated by vertical lamellas, swin­ging upwards over the glass-paneled entrances which are thus beau­tifully accen­tuated. The trai­ning areas are parti­ally under­ground and modelled to form a green hill, picking up the topo­graphy and enab­ling a coherent conti­nua­tion of the pathways and land­scape design of the Olympic Park.

The Behnisch approach

The new multi­pur­pose sports arena will be the fourth arena project for 3XN Archi­tects. ”During the design process, we conti­nu­ally thought about the park’s original design and asked ourselves how Günter Behnisch would have approa­ched the task. It was important to us to create a flexible, multi­pur­pose arena with a strong iden­tity while respec­ting the history and vision of the original Olympic Park and fitting in quite natu­rally. ”

The ground­brea­king ceremony is planned for the coming winter. Inau­gu­ra­tion of the new sports arena is planned for late summer 2021. Utili­zing the arena’s full orga­niza­tional capa­city, its two prin­cipal future occu­pants, FC Bayern Munich’s Basket­ball divi­sion and the Munich Red Bulls, can each play up to 40 matches per year. And there is addi­tional capa­city for up to 20 other matches and sports events as well as 20 sports-related events. The gross floor area of SAP Garden will be 673,000 square feet (62,500 square meters).

Comm­ents

Clients and future users of SAP Garden are very much in agree­ment with the result, also and espe­ci­ally in connec­tion with the Olympic Park.

Red Bull GmbH: “The design unites economic viabi­lity, sustaina­bi­lity and energy effi­ci­ency. That is why 3XN Archi­tects’ design was the best among many great entries.“

Uli Hoeneß, Presi­dent, FC Bayern München: “I’m impressed by how the archi­tects of the winning design managed to incor­po­rate the visual character of the legen­dary Olympic Park. The new arena will be much more than a top-modern sports hall where fans, athletes and our basket­ball team will feel comfor­table. I’m sure that this sports arena with its compel­ling design, inclu­ding the green roof, will be an archi­tec­tural eye-catcher and a great gain for the city of Munich.”

For the City of Munich, the special agree­ment to make the ice rinks available to its citi­zens for 8,000 hours each season pres­ents a unique oppor­tu­nity to create excel­lent skating condi­tions for schools, clubs and the general public. The sports arena will help streng­then the Olympic Park’s posi­tion as an outstan­ding venue for both profes­sional and grass­roots sports in Munich.

Facts and figures

• Gross floor area 673,000 sq. ft. (62,500 sq. m.)
• Audi­ence capa­city up to 11,500
• Three canopied ice rinks
• Under­ground parking garage at the sports arena with 220 spaces (an addi­tional 4,000 parking spaces are available at ‘Park­harfe Olym­pia­park’)
• Approx. 1,000 busi­ness seats
• 11 VIP boxes with approx. 156 seats
• Fan shops
• Office and confe­rence faci­li­ties