From the Room to the City
Munich – Urbanity and Complexity

Edited by Stephen Bates and Bruno Krucker
Contributions by Stephen Bates, Dietrich Erben, Bruno Krucker and Astrid Staufer
Conversation with Victor Lopez Cotelo
Photography: Simon Burko
Design: SJG / Joost Grootens

1st edition, 2023
Texts in English and German
Hardback
352 pages, 150 color and 80 b/w illustrations, 60 plans
18.5 x 28 cm
Published by Park Books – www.park-books.com
ISBN 978-3-03860-288-0

Available for EUR 48,–
(plus EUR 6,– shipment to Germany / 15,– to Europe)
To order please contact Ms. Ketevan Sevsal
mailto: ketevan.sevsal@tum.de
Payment after receipt of invoice.
For EU-countries: company purchasers should state a VAT number.
Private purchasers should state "for private use".

Over a period of ten years, as part of their joint teaching at the Technical University of Munich, British architect Stephen Bates and his Zurich-based colleague Bruno Krucker explored, investigated, and analyzed the Bavarian capital in collaboration with their students. The resulting in-depth study evaluates the city’s building history and ideas for its future in detail, and is now being presented in the form of a highly attractive compendium.

This richly illustrated book takes a close look at the European city in general, using Munich as an example. Its features are illuminated through a variety of means: atmospheric photographs, precise plans, drawings, images of models, and texts reveal the multi-layered and complex character of the place with all its particularities, coincidences, and intentions.

Like many other European cities, Munich has also been subject to incisive changes, whether through planned expansions, infrastructural developments, or war damage. This volume highlights how big plans and visions have often remained piecemeal, bound up with the paradigms of a generation, yet precisely because of this have proven to be unmistakable elements that shape Munich up to this day. Alongside this, individual new structures have resulted in continuous changes to the character of streets and demonstrate that the unfinished and unplanned are just as much a part of a city’s beauty.