Exactly four years after the foundation stone was laid, the new TUM Campus in the Olympic Park was officially inaugurated on Monday, May 16, 2022. The main users of the building and the entire facility are the Department of Sport and Health Sciences of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) with around 3,000 students, as well as the University Sports Center Munich with approximately 17,000 sports actives of all Munich universities and colleges per semester.
The design is by Dietrich | Untertrifaller Architects from Bregenz (Austria) and Balliana Schubert Landscape Architects from Zurich (Switzerland). In addition to institute buildings, laboratories, library and refectory for the sport and health sciences, gyms have also been built. The Free State of Bavaria is investing 168.5 million Euros in the project.
The aim of the 185-meter-long and 153-meter-wide new building was to preserve and continue the original composition of landscape and architecture in the north of the Olympic Park, which was created in 1972. For the total area of 34 hectares, an urban planning and landscape design concept was therefore developed to meet multifunctional requirements.
The building was largely made of wood and glass. Particular attention was paid to accessibility. A highlight of the new building is the 18-meter cantilevered wooden canopy that extends over the outdoor terrace and part of the newly constructed athletics facility on the west side of the building. The heart of the new facility is the so-called "Rue intérieure", which forms a connecting axis from the main entrance on the east side to the exit on the west side and links all parts of the building. Along this axis, all visitors have a transparent view into the sports halls, lecture halls and glazed seminar rooms.
At an official ceremony, the Minister of Construction Christian Bernreiter handed over the keys to the new building to Science Minister Markus Blume and TUM President Prof. Dr. Thomas F. Hofmann.
At the inauguration ceremony, Science Minister Blume said: "This is how Champions League works: the TUM Sports Campus in the Olympic Park is one of the most modern locations for sport and health sciences in Europe. The combination of both disciplines in one university facility is unique in Germany. TUM shows how scientific support for competitive sports, sport science, university sports and health prevention can go together. Setting the course for the future! The new building offers the best framework conditions for top research and training."
Construction Minister Bernreiter emphasized: "I am excited about this project. This is a great facility. And the special feature: 80 percent of the building is made of wood. That is sensational. Wood is a sustainable building material that binds CO2. As the Free State of Bavaria, we are setting a good example here with this construction."
TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann explained: "The legacy of the 1972 Olympic Games obligates us to always set out for new horizons. And that is precisely why we are giving health promotion and prevention at the Department a profile that is fit for the future and leading it into the radius of action of our medicine with its competencies in precision diagnostics and personalized therapy. To this end, the Department of Sport and Health Sciences will form the TUM School of Medicine and Health together with Medicine from October 2023. In this set-up, we want to research how we can keep people healthier for longer through exercise and nutrition concepts and personalized interventions. A significant, important step in light of the increasing challenges facing our healthcare system."
Prof. Dr. Renate Oberhoffer-Fritz, Dean of the Department of Sport and Health Sciences said: "With its extraordinary architecture, light appearance and imposing location embedded in the Olympic ensemble, the new campus draws attention to a modern Department that wants to make prevention research in the context of movement visible and comprehensible to people. It conveys this knowledge to our ambassadors, namely the more than 3,000 students of sport and health sciences and future sports teachers."
During the inauguration ceremony, TUM President Hofmann named the large lecture hall 1 of the TUM Campus in the Olympic Park the "BayWa Lecture Hall" in gratitude for the BayWa Foundation's many years of patronage of the Technical University of Munich.
The new TUM Campus building in the Olympic Park is currently in its third construction phase. In the process, the existing gyms are being demolished and the remaining building components, including the still missing office braces and courtyards, will be completed by 2024.
To the media coverage of the inauguration ceremony of the new TUM Campus in the Olympiapark
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Renate Oberhoffer-Fritz
Dean Department of Sport and Health Sciences
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24601
e-mail: renate.oberhoffer(at)tum.de
Text: Romy Schwaiger
Photos: Astrid Eckert / TUM