Case study
The New Cemetery in Riem
Project data
Project name: Cemetery Extension in Munich-Riem
Location: Munich, district of Riem (Munich-Riem quarter)
Planning: Competition 1997, 1st prize, planning commencement 1997
Construction period: 1999–2000
Construction costs: DM6m (about €3m) without buildings
Area: 13ha (130,000m²)
Landscape architects: Axel Lohrer and Ursula Hochrein, Munich, Magdeburg, Perach/Inn
Architects: Andreas Meck and Stefan Köppel, Munich
Client: City of Munich, represented by MRG München-Riem GmbH
Awards: German Landscape Architecture Award 2001 – Honourable Mention
German Architecture Award 2001 – Acknowledgement
Project history
In 1995, as part of the development process of the urban planning project for the Trade Fair and Exhibition
Centre Munich East, it was decided to enlarge the cemetery in Riem. This cemetery was to expand by
13ha, as the original area had been designed and built in 1908 and could no longer meet current needs. The
old cemetery is separated from the wedge-shaped extension site by a roadway. The site for the cemetery
extension lies at the border of old Riem and has become a sort of green connection between the old city
quarter and the new Munich East Trade Fair area.
In 1997, the competition jury for the new cemetery in Riem awarded the landscape architects Axel Lohrer
and Ursula Hochrein 1st prize. The competition brief demanded a new cemetery for a total of 6,500 graves,
the integration of a funeral hall and chapel, a direct connection to the old cemetery, despite a dividing road-
way, and recommendations for noise barriers in the north of the site along the A94 Autobahn. The brief
also required that the existing typical and ecologically valuable oligotrophic grasslands – which are also a
large and important part of the new landscape park – were to be kept and even enhanced as a connected,
uninterrupted open space.
The design for the cemetery extension was also to refer to the design concept for the landscape park. The
park’s concept has a clear structure and individuality with its long pathways and sightlines, wedge-shaped
topography and planting areas. The pathways and connections between the landscape park and the resi-
dential areas bordering onto the new cemetery were to be taken into consideration and kept open.
The new cemetery has come to represent the western part of the Landscape Park Riem which is the main
part of the green semi-circle around the new trade fair area. It was one of the first phases of the landscape
park to be completed.