The work of Marcelina Ommer, Mirca Eichner and Katharina Peter envisages an extension of the telecommunications office.Nobody knows what will become of the Old Post Office on Gießen or Bahnhofstrasse. Architecture students at the TH Mittelhessen thought about what could become of it. Prof. Nikolaus Zieske, who represents the field of existing building, set the design task.

The subject of the planning was the old post office and the telecommunications office behind it. The buildings are under monument protection. A youth hostel with 180 beds and one or two event halls for 300 people each should be accommodated in the two buildings without barriers. Rehearsal rooms were to be provided for the Gießen music and theater scene. The open spaces were to be designed and the urban space ordered.

In groups of two and three, the master’s students got to work. The owner of the property gave you the opportunity to visit the buildings. In addition to Zieske, Francesco Leoni, visiting professor from Italy, and the architect Ulrike Wassermann supported the teams.

The design by Jonas Kurtscheid, Karsten Heuser and Jan Peter Pfuhlmann shows that a 58 meter high-rise fits well into the urban space.Ultimately, ten designs were presented. "The results range from a careful revitalization and expansion of the building to visions of placing a high-rise building on the site or even proposing a "flying bridge" on the old post office building instead of the roof landscape, which could accommodate upscale gastronomy," Ulrike Wassermann summarizes her impressions. Other ideas include, for example, expanding the mathematics center under the courtyard of the Old Post Office or separating the open space between the buildings from the public road with a foyer.

In all of the drafts, the facades of the old post office are to be restored and the historic entrances reactivated. Public uses by cafés or restaurants are planned on the ground floor. The 45 hostel rooms will be set up everywhere on the upper floors.

The Alte Post has been empty for more than 20 years. And there is no end in sight. However, the students agreed that the realization of their planning ideas would do the place good.