Olympic Village of Munich

The “Olympiadorf” (or “Olydorf” like the people living there like to call it) is the Olympic village built for the Olympic games 1972 in Munich.

The architects who built this place (many german architects from Stuttgart and Munich worked together to built up this huge project) had in mind a real “ideal” city, living on it’s own in a very futuristic 70’s mood. Great buildings of 20 floors form the external limits of the area, but inside of it you find smaller buildings and even little houses with a few appartments in the center of the area (they were originally the “womens village” separated from the “Men’s village” in the giant buildings). In the surface, you have only pedestrian zone, and the different directions are shown with giant color-tubes to follow in different directions.

The cars, parking and the streets are in the underground, so they never are to seen on the surface. And what’s surprising, is that the “village” is a real community, with a lot of shops, restaurants, bars and many cultural and sport activities. So the place, who looks a little bit strange (frightening?) from outside, is really alive and rich in the inside.

What really impresses me is how this architectural project really constructed a living place and how it is still, 30 years after, a real dynamic living place, a little bit out of the real center of Munich, but a real different city in the city! (And very near of the Olympiadorf, is also the brand new “BMW Welt” with an impressive architecture too. And the Olympiapark with all the sports installations is a great place to visit as well… but this will be another location… ;))

To go there it’s metro U3, station “Olympiadorf”, and the just follow the color-tubes! :)

http://www.eig-olympiadorf.de/html/englisch.html
http://www.olympiadorf.de/

written by vicuna on 2009-06-01 #places #munich #culture #buildings #drama #location #terrorism #1972 #olympic-games #architecture #germany #israel #plo #futurism #olympia