The academy was built in the 1960s and was extended with a hall, various seminar rooms, a room of silence and 24 guest rooms. As the site’s extent and form did not allow a classic linear extension, we decided in favour of an S-shaped outline which makes it possible to orient all the guest rooms to the park on the eastern side. In the 18th century, Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, had had this park laid out around the Petit Trianon for Franziska von Hohenheim.

The curved ground plan had given rise to a recess on the ground floor, which was closed off to the road separating the site and the park with a wall made of demolition bricks. This produced an inner courtyard ideally suited to meditation. In contrast to the wall, the façade of the new building is faced with coarse white rendering. The window frames are oak.

The foyer is approached through an entrance yard in front of it. From there the route leads past the lecture theatres and seminar rooms to the room of silence at the end of the building complex. The floor, ceiling and walls of this small chapel contrast with the other rooms by dint of the maple lining used throughout. Daylight is admitted into the interior indirectly. After darkness falls, a light fitting designed by Gunnar Asplund floods the room in a soft glow.

The layouts of the mainly single guest rooms on the two upper floors are efficient and their furnishings are simple. Each has its own small balcony with a wicker railing resembling a basket – for many people the feature that actually gives the house its identity.

Client:
Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Stuttgart

Architects:
Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei, Stuttgart

Team:
Andy Brauneis, Christine Dom, Matthias Schirrmacher, Stefanie Lempart

Structural Engineering:
Ingenieurbüro Andreas Bewer, Neuhausen auf den Fildern

Competition:
1996 – 1st prize

Construction period:
1996 – 1999

Location:
Paracelsusstraße 91-93, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany

Awards
Auszeichnung Beispielhaftes Bauen 2002
Architektenkammer Baden-Württemberg

Publications
Lederer, Arno / Ragnarsdóttir, Jórunn / Oei, Marc (Hg.):
Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei 1
Jovis Verlag Berlin 2012

Ilonka Czerny, Abraham Kustermann (Hg.):
Tagungszentrum Hohenheim – Kapelle Stuttgart
Stuttgart 2009

Falk Jaeger (Hg.):
Lederer+Ragnarsdóttir+Oei
Berlin 2008

L’architecture d’aujourd’hui
362 | 2006

Carola Franke-Höltzermann (Hg.):
Neues Stuttgart. Stuttgarter Baukultur 1996–2006
Berlin 2005

Till Wöhler (Hg.):
Neue Architektur. Sakralbauten.
Verlagshaus Braun, 2005.
ISBN 3-935455-75-5

Hans Weidinger:
Patina. Neue Ästhetik in der zeitgenössischen Architektur
München 2003

Detail
11 | 2002

Bauwelt
1-2 | 2002

Stuttgarter Zeitung
31.05.2001

Bulletin der Alvar Aalto Gesellschaft
13 | 2001

Baumeister
5 | 2001

Das Architekten-Magazin
4 | 2001

Abraham Kustermann (Hg.):
Mehr denn Utopie. 50 Jahre Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart
Stuttgart 2001

Architekturgalerie am Weißenhof (Hg.):
Drinnen ist anders als draußen
Baunach 2001

Galerie Aedes (Hg.):
Drinnen ist anders als draußen
Berlin 2000

Architektenkammer Baden-Württemberg (Hg.):
Ausloberpreis 2000: Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart
Stuttgart 2000

Photos
Roland Halbe, Stuttgart