MONACO tops out in Munich: MVRDV wraps an office block in demolition brick and recycled PVC

In Munich's Werksviertel, MONACO has reached its highest point. The six-storey office building by MVRDV, developed by Rock Capital Group, announced its topping-out on 3 November 2026, with completion scheduled for the third quarter of 2027. What sets it apart is not its height but its skin: almost every visible surface is made from material that was once something else.

Street-level render of MONACO: the brick office block on the left and the stepped volume clad in multicoloured recycled plastic shingles on the corner, with planted terraces and a park in front — *MONACO from the street: the brick work block and the shingle-clad play volume on the corner. Render: Courtesy MVRDV*

A factory site, rewritten

The plot belongs to the former Pfanni food factory east of Munich's Ostbahnhof. After production stopped in 1996, the site lived a second life as the nightlife district Kunstpark Ost, later Kultfabrik, and since 2016 it has been redeveloped as Werksviertel Mitte, a mix of work, culture, leisure and housing. MONACO is one of the newest pieces of that puzzle.

Work block and play volume

MVRDV splits the building into two characters. A compact six-storey work block holds around 4,000 m² of offices. Over its north-east end, a second, stepped play volume climbs up and over the roof, creating a cascade of planted terraces. Together with the rooftop garden they add 580 m² of outdoor space, meant as shared areas for the tenants. The project is targeting LEED Platinum.

Render of MONACO's stepped play volume clad in recycled plastic shingles, with planted terraces above the brick office block — *The stepped volume and its terraces above the brick office block. Render: Courtesy MVRDV*

Two kinds of waste, two façades

Each volume has its own cladding, and both come from the waste stream:

Reclaimed clinker brick. The work block is faced with bricks salvaged from demolitions in the region, laid as a patchwork so that differences in colour and size become part of the elevation instead of a defect to hide.
Recycled PVC shingles. The play volume is wrapped in shingles by Pretty Plastic, the Amsterdam company that makes cladding from discarded PVC building products such as window frames, gutters and drainpipes. According to the manufacturer, MONACO uses 484 m² of its "First One" tiles in six shades, made from 11,810 kg of upcycled PVC.

MVRDV's announcement gives much larger quantities for both materials (approx. 60,000 for the bricks and almost 12,000 for the shingles, expressed in m²). For a building of this size these are most likely piece counts, so we use the manufacturer's figures here.

Why it matters for the envelope

Reuse is usually discussed for structure and interiors. MONACO puts it on the outside, where it is visible and where it has to perform: weathering, fixing, fire behaviour and colour stability all have to be proven for products that started life as something else. A patchwork of salvaged brick accepts tolerance as part of the design; a PVC rainscreen made from old window frames closes a loop that the façade industry itself opened. Both are worth watching once the scaffolding comes down in 2027.

MONACO under construction in Munich's Werksviertel at topping-out: the concrete frame wrapped in scaffolding next to a tower crane, among office buildings — *MONACO at topping-out, November 2026: the shell in scaffolding, before the brick and the shingles go on. Photo: Courtesy MVRDV*

Credits

Architect: MVRDV (founding partner Jacob van Rijs; director Sven Thorissen)
Client: Rock Capital Group
Structural engineering, MEP, building physics and fire protection: Seidl & Partner Gesamtplanung
Landscape architecture: Landschaftsarchitektur Huber
Cost consultant: Wenzel + Wenzel
Recycled PVC shingles: Pretty Plastic
Images: Courtesy MVRDV

Sources: MVRDV (news, 3 November 2026; project page); Pretty Plastic.

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