HISTORY AND TASK

The Stiftsgymnasium, housed in the historic buildings of the Schlierbach Abbey complex, was looking for a coherent, contemporary revision of its interior spaces, which had been characterised over the years by evolving solutions to the changing demands of school operations. Adequately designing this task in a major work of Austrian Baroque architecture from around 1700 was an appealing and challenging task for us. The design goal was to harmonise the opulently decorated rooms with their use as a contemporary educational facility.

CONCEPT

The idea of the Baroque Gesamtkunstwerk in architecture - i.e. the endeavour to create harmonious ensembles - forms the starting point for the design. The overall concept blends harmoniously and confidently into the existing building with just a few interventions, without competing with it. The design vocabulary is also based in the broadest sense on the lively design enthusiasm of the Baroque period: elaborately designed furniture, often with concave-convex curves, emphasises the spatial effect and is a self-confident counterpart to the opulently decorated stucco ceilings.

IMPLEMENTATION

During the analysis, we developed three different levels of intervention to fulfil the task: Light and atmosphere, thresholds and transitions, as well as space and material. Light beams, which are arranged in a star shape and are flexible in terms of both the length and spacing of the elements, form a lighting concept that corresponds to both the baroque ceilings and the intended usage.

The doors were completely redeveloped to take account of the existing building: These sit as large, dark-stained panes - in analogy to the historic doors - at an angle in the very deep reveals. There is no door frame; the entire element rotates when opened. Due to the slanted position, the door panels extend a little into the corridor and thus also act as an orientation system.

In order to protect the historic wall structure, it was necessary to treat the functional elements of the contemporary classroom as sensitively as possible. To this end, a concave curved wall structure was developed to combine all these elements - pipework, heating system, washbasin, storage space and room acoustics. The window recesses will become seating areas for the students.

In the conference room, the window recesses become standing workstations. The individual workstations can be flexibly combined. The convex/concave shapes allow for variable arrangements and configurations. The size of the conference room is increased by opening up existing historical connections to suit the number of teachers, thus connecting three rooms. In the workstation area, the parquet flooring is laid in a star shape: an analogy to the historic wooden floors that still exist in some of the other rooms.