Hambach Castle

Hambach Castle, backdrop for the 'Hambach Festival', which was a German national democratic festival in the 19th century, represents European and German history in a unique way. In a first step, during the rebuilding of the historical castle building, we attached great importance to exposing the building's original substance. The existing walls were painstakingly cleaned, opened up and consolidated, thereby creating both spatial and chronological connections which had remained concealed until then. All new materials such as cherry wood, stone, steel and glass & were selected so as to blend in naturally, while all technical features remained hidden within the thick walls. In the second step of the project, the construction of the '1832 Restaurant', we took the concept of 'creating a building from the wall' as our visual starting point. Made of local yellow sandstone, these walls heavily influence the site's overall appearance and for this reason the same material was chosen for the new construction work.

The castle's new restaurant takes its visual lead from the defensive walls and serves in a sense to augment them. This results in an unobtrusive, clean-lined structure which complements the principal castle building, thereby ensuring visitors a welcome that is respectful of history. At the same time, the building's dining function serves as an additional benefit to the complex as a whole. The restaurant has many windows which are glazed flush with the interior wall. These deeply recessed forms in various sizes are distributed like paintings across the restaurant wall, creating sophisticated visual compositions which establish an enhanced relationship with the stunning landscape beyond. The light and rectilinear restaurant nestles harmoniously alongside the existing historical castle building, providing both an optical continuation of the mediaeval ring wall and a logical evolution of the building's structural form.