Guesthouse at the Leibniz Center for Informatics

In 2011, a new guesthouse was added to the baroque, landmarked Dagstuhl Castle complex, now home to the Leibniz Center for Informatics. The challenge was to develop an architecturally appealing, harmonious relationship between the new building and the historic building, which had been expanded several times in the post-war period.

The guest house, clad in a wooden slatted facade, appears to rest like an elegant cube on the surrounding wall at the end of the castle garden, and at the same time extends beyond it with a wide cantilevered terrace. With this open yet sheltered area, the house creates a new link between the castle grounds and the surrounding meadows.

The project received the Saarland Building Owner Award in 2014. From the jury's comments: "The high art of solving a challenging task in a seemingly simple way is evident not only in an almost self-explanatory building design, but also in every recognizable detail. The consistency of the implementation from design to construction planning to execution is impressive".