The relationship between form and function is a constant field of tension in which architecture moves. Perfection is achieved as a result of the harmonious balance between form and aesthetics – very much as in a football match. Perfection, nonetheless, tolerates no standstill and a permanent urge for change underlies the idea of perfection. Change is reflected mostly in details before it reveals itself on a larger scale. In architecture it is mostly through relatively small building assignments that change is displayed, particularly due to the frequency of these assignments. The constructions at the FC Bayern club grounds on Säbener Strasse bear witness to this permanent evolution. Each of their construction periods is a built description of FC Bayern‘s career as one of the greatest and successful sport clubs worldwide. Architecture becomes a portrait in stone of the philosophy and the Weltanschauung of a particular time, by far through large, public-interest, building assignments. Hence, stadiums have been built for centuries as open spaces designed solely for sport activities, although they served at the same time as venues for different events like the Olympic Stadium in Munich, with its slack-tent construction and its outdoor facilities merging with the surrounding landscape. An open-minded, cosmopolitan gesture with which the young Federal Republic of Germany held the 1972 Olympic Games. Mia san Mia (We are who we are). In keeping with FC Bayern‘s motto, self-assured in its luminous shell, the Allianz Arena occupies the northern access into Munich. Solely football-oriented, it emotionally absorbs the visitor with its dense interior atmosphere. As a symbol of the change in the feeling of time, the Arena is the most consistent and successful architectural counter-composition to the Olympic Stadium. This book describes, through the buildings of FC Bayern, the many and varied ways and intentions with which architecture forms and develops.weiterlesen