Hambach Castle, the scene of the "National Festival of the Germans", represents European and German history in a unique way. The aim of the contemporary intervention was to carefully cleanse, open and compact the preserved substance. The interventions were only intended to support the historical inventory and not to intervene significantly, so that spatial and chronological connections become legible again. In the south, the castle was supplemented by a new restaurant building, which is architecturally based on the historic defensive walls. A new visitor house was built on the outer ring wall, the cubature of which develops from the archetypal form of the house and reinforces the typological character of the outbuilding. Its arrangement reflects the structural hierarchy of the palace complex: crowned by the castle itself, it unfolds over the inner ring wall to the outer wall with the visitors' house. The typical yellow Leistadt sandstone was used for the façades, which was already used in the historic castle building.
For his work on Hambach Castle, Max Dudler received the DAM Prize for Architecture in Germany 2012, an award at the German Architecture Award 2013, the German Natural Stone Prize 2013 and the Design Prize of the Wüsenrot Foundation 2014. The visitor house was awarded a Special Mention at the German Natural Stone Award 2018.
Conversion: GFA 3,500m²
New restaurant building: GFA 1,300 m²
New visitor house GFA 453m²
Text: MAX DUDLER
Photos: Stefan Müller
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