Educational Centre Seggau CastleRealized

Seggau Castle is one of the most important and striking historical church buildings in Styria. Before an educational centre for seminars and other educational events was set up at the castle in the 1950s, agriculture and forestry were its main sources of income. In 1996, the diocese decided to invest in the comprehensive modernisation of the facility and organised an architectural competition, which Ernst Giselbrecht won.

His concept is based on the intention of freeing the precious historical substance from unsuitable later additions, while carrying out infrastructural improvements in the old parts of the building in a low-key manner: for instance, essential facilities such as a central kitchen, which could not have been installed in the existing building parts without significantly damaging their substance, were moved to a newly added building.

The new seminar hotel, situated next to the forest on the edge of the slope, presents itself as a contemporary, independent appendix that is connected to the east wing in an almost parallel design. The new wing contains a kitchen, a dining hall with a veranda, seminar rooms and guest rooms, and, with its elongated shape, could be interpreted as a modern version of the garden park. As the building is mounted on support columns, the view over the old courtyard wall is largely unobstructed, underlining the fact that the architect deliberately avoided any self-complacent appropriation of the surrounding green spaces, which lead to the Baroque orangery.

At first glance, it would have made sense to contrast the white walls of the castle itself with a homogeneous skin of metal or glass plates, a theme Giselbrecht usually likes to play on. However, in Seggau there is no need to guard the facility against views from the outside, and it would be a shame to curtail the view over the surrounding gardens and vineyards. For this reason, the design only concedes to a certain amount of protection against the heat of the western sun: with a glazing structure that protrudes at a distance from the glass façade that envelops the room. The cool forest air is thus able to circulate, reducing the amount of incoming heat. The choice of wooden boards varnished in red for those parts of the façade that are not made of glass may reflect the intention of giving the new building the naturally homey atmosphere that we generally ascribe to old structures.

(Text: DI Karin Tschavgova)