2021

öffentlich zugänglich

Haus für Kinder Wackersberger Straße 71, 81371 München

Sechs florale Motive, Wandputz in Sgraffito-Technik

Architecture: AG Neumeister & Paringer Architekten PartG mbB und Nadler Sperk Reif PartG mbB, Landshut

Landscape architecture: grünfabrik Landschaftsarchitekten Reingruber, Bücking, Kirchdorf

Photos: Florian Holzherr

Text: Cornelia Gockel

The entrance to the Haus für Kinder on Kidlerplatz has promised a hearty welcome ever since the artist Martin Wöhrl made its earthy brown walls bloom. Extending upward from the ground are slender stalks bearing round, compact buds and fully open blossoms. The many shapes are geometrically simplified, recalling both Bauhaus aesthetics and the paintings on antique cupboards found in old farmhouses. To execute his design, Wöhrl used sgraffito, which is a historical technique for decorating pottery that goes back to the Italian Renaissance. Several layers of colored plaster are applied to the wall, and then the artist scratches the motif into it with a wire stylus, creating a sculptural relief.

In his practice of art, Wöhrl often uses traditional craft techniques with a contemporary twist. With his artistic design for the entrance area, he has not only sought a dialogue with the architecture and its color scheme, but also a confrontation with the environment. The Haus für Kinder is in Sendling, a part of Munich that has retained its village identity to this day, even after being incorporated into the city. Aside from the old village center with its church and former farm estates, many blocks of co-op apartments and multi-family rentals are typical of the area. Some of the façades are decorated with expressive sgraffito—a way to identify the building and at the same time, an expression of its individuality. Martin Wöhrl picks up on these influences and manages to combine past and present with a light hand.