Vicious Circles

North of Munich is a large community of apartments just west of Allianz Arena, which is sometimes called Hydepark. I came across it as I noticed the perfectly formed semi-circle line of apartments from an airplane on its approach to Munich airport. But I can tell you that it looks much better from a 5000-foot vantage point. The vast expanse of apartments, built likely in the early 70s as a concept style of living, has not aged well. The structure is set so the cars are pulled underneath or into only a few car parks, and the apartment living surface intermingles with the parkland at the edge of the city. It all sounds nice, but walking through you felt an amazing feeling of isolation, as the apartment and nearby parks were amazingly empty for the middle of the day. And each of the apartment buildings were stapled with satellite dishes, highlighting the urge for any contact with the outside world. This was the neighborhood North of the popular Euro Industrial Shopping center, but it could have been a world away from Munich. The property is run by Igewo GmbH, which manages more than 1800 apartments in Munich, much of them public funded. Of course this is off the Munich Tourist map, but even If you’re looking for inside Munich experiences, I don’t think this is it. My advice, stay inside the ring road for real Munich, and leave these rings for someone else.