New life for Altenberg Monastery: Twenty-nine architecture students from Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Giessen explored forward-looking concepts for the use of the 12th-century monastery complex above the Lahn River near Solms-Oberbiel during a two-week summer school at the StudiumPlus campus in Wetzlar. The event was organized by the Department Civil Engineering at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen . The international workshop, "Clausura 23," focused on creativity, building construction, and international understanding.
For the third time, THM hosted the architecture workshop, which has been held annually at different locations since 2002. This year, students and professors from the Universities of Pavia (Italy) and Madrid (Spain), the Institute of Technology in Izmir (Turkey), and THM participated. The workshop was organized and supervised by Prof. Nikolaus Zieske and Ulrike Wassermann from the THMDepartment of Civil Engineering.
The project originated from a request by the Count of Oppersdorf zu Solms-Braunfels. As the owner, he wanted the students to develop ideas for the future of the monastery, which is leased to the Königsberg Deaconess Institute until 2054. Since the last deaconesses left Altenberg over ten years ago, and even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic, large parts of the complex have stood empty. Currently, it primarily houses a registry office and the Altenberg Religious Community.
The students were given a complex assignment, for which they had to produce results within just 14 days. The requirements were that their designs should include a venue for wedding celebrations, a hotel, and a restaurant for day visitors. Furthermore, they had to ensure the undisturbed religious practice of the local community. The goal was to channel the different visitor flows and meet their respective needs, explained Wassermann.
Four students from each of four countries formed an international project team. In their search for common solutions, they had to overcome language barriers and cultural differences, as well as reconcile differing design and construction requirements. Berna Bahar Ören from Izmir and Sarina Pumm, a master's student at THM, described the collaboration with students from other countries as exciting and educational. Their concept for Altenberg, which they developed together with Gaia Di Lernia from Pavia and Miriam Hernández from Madrid, envisions a public and a private courtyard with separate entrances within the monastery walls: the former cloister courtyard and the pilgrims' courtyard, as well as an event hall for wedding celebrations. At the conclusion of the workshop, all teams presented their results to Count Oppersdorf zu Solms-Braunfels and representatives of the Königsberg Diakonie.
Even outside of project work, the atmosphere during the Summer School was fantastic, participants reported. Italian, Turkish, Spanish, and German cooking evenings were held in the campus kitchen. In addition, there were excursions with guided city tours of Giessen and Wetzlar, a workshop at Leica Camera AG, and a visit to Altenberg Abbey. Professors Erdem Erten (Izmir), Enrique Martinez (Madrid), and Alessandro Greco (Pavia) gave lectures on current architectural topics in their respective countries. The workshop was funded by EU funds from the new "Blended Intensive Programmemes" within the Erasmus+ programme. The University of Pavia will host the workshop in 2024.