Heidelberg Castle is one of the most important Renaissance buildings north of the Alps. The new visitor centre is located on the historic retaining wall between the gardener's house and the former tack room, which was also converted into a restaurant by Max Dudler. The three buildings now form the prelude to the castle as an ensemble. The architecture of the new building develops from the idea of the building as a sculptural block of stone. As with the tack room, the walls are over two meters thick. However, they are not massive here, but house the ancillary rooms and vertical access points of the two-storey building. The extremely deep soffits, precisely beveled according to the selected visual axes, allow the new building and the monument to enter into a dialogue. Visitors can also already see the castle ruins via the terrace on the second floor. The self-supporting façade, including the roof, was made of the reddish Neckar valley sandstone typical of the area. The visitor centre received the Hugo Häring Award 2014 from the BDA Heidelberg and the Hugo Häring State Prize 2015 from the BDA Baden-Württemberg.
[Source: Max Dudler] (https://www.maxdudler.de/de/projekte/besucherzentrum-schloss-heidelberg/)
Photos: Stefan Josef Müller
