House Altenberg

2011-2018

Today’s ensemble of buildings to the south of the towering Altenberg Cathedral is a reference to the Cistercian monastery that once stood here, founded in 1145 and existing until 1803. A Romanesque predecessor church already had a cloister in the area of the later basement building of the baroque complex – today’s reception courtyard. In 1259, the laying of the foundation stone for the new Gothic monastery church, known today as ‘Altenberg Cathedral’, marked the beginning of a three-century Gothic construction phase, at the end of which one of the most important Cistercian monasteries in Central Europe was built. The monastery ensemble reached its greatest structural and spatial expansion during the Baroque period. After the beginning of the 19th century, parts of the complex were first used as a hospital and later as a paint factory. Destroyed by a major fire in 1815, the monastery complex fell into ruin in the years that followed. The end of the 19th century saw the first revival of the site with the reconstruction of the church financed by the Prussian king and the construction of an ‘archiepiscopal villa’ by the Cologne diocese, before the addition of the Haus Altenberg youth education centre in the following decades from 1922.

In close consultation with conservationists and soil archaeologists and based on an intensive basic investigation by architect Joachim Schwister from the Archbishop’s Building Office, we proposed that the ensemble should be transformed once again into a purified building that recalls the archaic atmosphere of a monastery site in order to do justice to the historical significance of the location and to safeguard this atmosphere for future generations. At the same time, it was important to preserve the very specific atmosphere of the ‘Haus Altenberg’ institution and to create something new that carries these memories with it.

The restructuring of the building ensemble goes hand in hand with the fundamentally rethought large-scale integration into the landscape, which was achieved in particular through the demolition of farm buildings, roads and car parks as well as overgrown greenery. The architectural image of the ‘monastery in the valley’ was the inspiration here, in order to evoke the atmosphere of the monastic character of the place.

The conceptual idea for the interior is to recall the vaulted room geometries of the historical church buildings that preceded it at this location with characteristically shaped rooms – especially the ceiling areas. This spatial theme gives the main rooms individuality and distinctiveness, which is also reflected in the choice of materials. Hand-moulded clinker bricks and thick plaster in historic trowel technique characterise the exterior. In the interior, clay plaster was used in the historic part, new and existing exposed concrete parts were refined with white sanding plaster and ceiling areas of the meeting rooms and circulation routes were moulded and visually calmed using wooden slats.

Based on the diversity of the existing stairwells, the stairwells are each designed with their own material theme and thus serve as points of orientation for users within the overall structure.

Cologne Architecture Award 2018
DAM Prize 2019 Shortlist
EU Mies van der Rohe Award Nominee