Technische Universität München
First permanent building in Europe by Pritzker laureate Francis Kéré: Kinderoase at TUM
TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH
PRESS RELEASE
Handover of the Kinderoase at TUM
First permanent building in Europe by star architect and TUM Professor Francis Kéré
- Iconic timber building with a Corten steel louvered façade
- Space for 60 children on TUM’s main campus
- Funded by patron and TUM Honorary Senator Ingeborg Pohl
The first permanent building by star architect Prof. Francis Kéré in Europe is located at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). After just over two years of construction, the uniquely designed “Kinderoase at TUM” has been handed over for its intended purpose. In future, up to 60 children of TUM staff members will be cared for in the vertical kindergarten. Kéré was awarded the Pritzker Prize, also known as the “Nobel Prize for Architecture”, in 2022 and is a Professor of Architectural Design and Participation at TUM.
The building was financed, constructed and donated to TUM by entrepreneur and TUM Honorary Senator Ingeborg Pohl. As the client, she commissioned Prof. Francis Kéré for the visionary design and his professorial colleague Hermann Kaufmann, who made the design feasible in the first place, for the execution planning. The result is a timber structure with five stories and an iconically folded louvered façade made of weathering steel.
A total area of around 700 square meters is available for the children. The children are grouped by age; each age group occupies its own floor, and the middle and upper levels hold communal areas for play, sports, and meals, including a multipurpose sports room. At the very top, a partially covered rooftop terrace called the Himmelswiese (“sky meadow”) gives the children a sheltered place in the densely built urban environment to run, feel the wind and the sun, and look out across the city.
At the heart of the design is the vertical playground. Slides connect the floors, making movement to a level below an invitation to play. The playground is also an acoustic buffer that shields the quieter rooms behind it from street noise.
New highlight in Munich’s museum quarter
Honorary Senator Ingeborg Pohl emphasized: “I would especially like to thank everyone who helped during the very ambitious construction period of two and a quarter years. With this Kinderoase, I am fulfilling my wish to support high-performing women in reconciling their careers and family lives.”
TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann said: “Something truly special has been created here: a place for children that helps parents reconcile work and family life – and all of this in a building of unique architectural quality in the middle of Munich’s museum quarter. I would like to thank our Honorary Senator Ingeborg Pohl from the bottom of my heart for her lived civic engagement and her exemplary sense of commitment to the common good, which combines utility and aesthetics so perfectly for the promotion of the next generations of young people.”
Prof. Francis Kéré said: “My very first projects were designed for schoolchildren, and now I am building for the very youngest. This is a wonderful responsibility. We designed the Kinderoase entirely from the perspective of the children who will use it. We created a vertical play space in which they can run, climb and slide from one floor to the next. I hope that this building will make the children curious and encourage them to play, invent games and do things together.”
Hermann Kaufmann, Emeritus Professor at the TUM Chair of Timber Architecture and Design, emphasized: “It is gratifying that TUM’s internationally recognized expertise in timber construction has now found its visible expression at this central location in Munich.”
Bavaria’s Science Minister Markus Blume explains: “The most important investment in the future is our children. The new TUM Children’s Oasis is an iconic building in the heart of the city that gives parents breathing space and shows that cutting-edge research depends on being family-friendly. Here, today’s researchers find the best possible conditions – and perhaps the talents of tomorrow as well. My heartfelt thanks go to Senator h.c. Ingeborg Pohl for her exceptional commitment and this generous gift to TUM. Those who give children opportunities are shaping the future.”
Further information:
Francis Kéré has been a professor of Architectural Design and Participation at TUM since 2017. The master builder from Burkina Faso in West Africa is regarded as one of the most important representatives of socially engaged contemporary architecture. He regards Germany as his intellectual home. He has repeatedly expressed his deep attachment to TUM.
- In 2022 he was the first architect from an African country to receive the most prestigious award in architecture.
- In 2021 he was honored with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture.
- In 2023 he received the Praemium Imperiale art prize for his life’s work.
Ingeborg Pohl has been an Honorary Senator of TUM since 2016. The entrepreneur and benefactor loves to design and build, to initiate projects and to bring them to fruition. She has been committed to TUM for many years – a few examples:
- She is a founding benefactor of the TUM University Foundation.
- She is a benefactor of the Raitenhaslach Study Fund and supports seminars and symposia with students and researchers.
- In 2015 she provided a substantial sum for TUM’s immediate program for the admission of prospective and enrolled refugee students and played a major role in helping to integrate these young people.
- At the same time, she is funding the expansion of a daycare center at TUM’s Klinikum rechts der Isar.
Technical data:
- The Kinderoase was built on a site along Gabelsberger Straße that had remained undeveloped since the end of World War II. To the south, the building adjoins the TUM cafeteria. Existing TUM buildings are located to the east and west.
- The building is a timber structure with a weathering steel façade. Only the emergency escape stairwell at the rear is made of concrete.
- Spruce was used as the main construction timber. The parquet flooring and stair treads are made of ash.
- A total of 100 tons of steel were used, mainly for the 2,085 façade louvers. The total length of the louvers is approximately 7,300 meters.
- The building is 15.10 meters wide and 17.46 meters deep.
- The gross floor area is 1,541 square meters.
Project participants:
- Design: Kéré Architecture, Berlin
- Execution planning: HK Architekten – Hermann Kaufmann + Partner ZT GmbH, Schwarzach
- Project management and construction management: acting on behalf of the client, Antony Groß, GAPP GmbH, Munich
- Structural design, fire protection and building physics: Stefan Winter, Emeritus Professor at the TUM Chair of Timber Structures and Building Construction, bauart Konstruktions GmbH & Co. KG, Munich
- Energy efficiency: Prof. Thomas Auer, TUM Professorship of Building Technology and Climate Responsive Design, Munich
- Technical building services: ITG-Ingenieurgesellschaft für TGA mbH, Munich
- Landscape planning: Jühling & Köppel Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, Munich
- Operation of the Kinderoase: Studierendenwerk München Oberbayern
Additional material for media outlets:
Photos for download: www.picdrop.com/astrideckert/gaDLeJFX3v
Password: AFy6NTrv
New photos are continuously added to this folder. Credit: Astrid Eckert / TUM
TUM Corporate Communications Center contact:
Ulrich Meyer
Press Spokesperson
+49 89 289 22779
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of the world’s leading universities in terms of research, teaching and innovation, with around 700 professorships, 52,000 students and 13,000 staff. TUM’s range of subjects includes computer sciences, engineering, natural and life sciences, medicine, economics and social sciences. As an entrepreneurial university, TUM envisages itself as a global hub of knowledge exchange, open to society. Every year, around 100 start-ups are founded at TUM, which acts as a key player in Munich’s high-tech ecosystem. The university is represented around the world by its TUM Asia campus in Singapore along with offices in Beijing, Brussels, Mumbai, San Francisco, São Paulo and Shenzhen. Nobel Prize laureates and inventors such as Rudolf Diesel, Carl von Linde and Rudolf Mößbauer have conducted research at TUM, which was awarded the title of University of Excellence in 2006, 2012, 2019 and 2026. International rankings regularly cite TUM as the best university in the European Union.