The charm of abandoned buildings

Created: 02/15/2022, 07:02

By: Andrea Graepel

A large inner courtyard and laboratories belong to the former main building.

© private

Seen from Kientalstrasse, the former headquarters of the Heine Optotechnik company doesn't look that big.

After the company merged its four Herrschinger locations in Gilching into one area (we reported), the property was empty, is to be demolished and three new apartment buildings are to be built.

The project developers from Bayernwohnen breathed new life into the property.

Herrsching -

The property has belonged to the company from Stephanskirchen since September.

Clubs in Herrsching were now allowed to use the old Heine furniture that had been left behind in the main building.

Even more, before the wrecking ball comes, the Herrschinger "artists from the built-in closet" can let off steam in the offices, laboratories, basement and inner courtyard in the summer.

Project manager and architect Fabian Strebel has not organized interim solutions for the first time.

When contact was finally established with the group of artists via Mayor Christian Schiller, the project developers were hooked – and so were the artists.

"We had already looked at the house a few years ago," says Gesine Dorschner, who, together with Felix Maizet, Monika Roll and Enno Müller-Spaethe, has been part of the regular "artists from the built-in closet" since 2012.

Most recently, they drew attention to themselves with their campaign in the old Henle sports store, before it was demolished in 2018.

Then Corona came.

When Schiller told them that the parent company with 2,600 square meters of commercial space would be available in the summer, they too used the "association day" to look at the premises and explore possibilities.

"We are thrilled," says Gesine Dorschner.

The group wants to start planning the details as early as next week.

The clubs, who could choose something from the old furniture, were also enthusiastic.

"There was still a lot of office furniture in the house," says Strebel.

Including not only tables and chairs, but also showcases, shelves, lockers and electrical devices such as six printers and desk lamps.

After the first circular mail that Bayernwohnen sent to the clubs with the support of the town hall administration, 20 clubs got in touch.

When the date was set, however, one or the other canceled again due to the corona.

In the end there were seven clubs whose representatives helped themselves before the furniture was finally disposed of.

The lifeguards, for example, were happy about the lockers.

"There's still a lot there," admits Strebel.

However, a second date is no longer planned.

The artists can let off steam again before the former Heine headquarters on Kienbachstraße are leveled to the ground and made room for three apartment buildings with a total of 36 apartments.

Since 2012, the Herrschinger Kunstgruppe has been transforming vacant buildings into temporary galleries.

The first project was an old Herrschinger villa on Schönbichlstraße in Herrsching from the 1960s.

Due to a lack of partition walls, large parts of the exhibits were presented in the existing built-in cupboards.

Consequently, the exhibition was called “Art in the built-in cupboard” and provided the template for the name of the artist group.

In 2014 it received the district's culture promotion prize for the original concept.

The four co-founders of the group already mentioned are still there today, new ones have joined, and as in the old Henle sports store on Seestrasse, guest artists will again be involved in the temporary artistic use of pictures, objects, installations and other activities in the original Heine store.

Back then, the all-round concept also included music and a food truck.