House – stable – barn: the new library in Gundelsheim

Since late summer 2020, the new library in Gundelsheim has revitalized the town center. Schlicht Lamprecht Architekten from Schweinfurt have succeeded in transforming a 19th-century farmhouse with a stable, which is a landmark of the area, into a versatile center for the Upper Franconian community with a careful conversion and a complementary new wooden building.

Mayor Jonas Merzbacher’s wish for the new library in Gundelsheim was to create not just a media lending library, but a place for people to meet and learn, “a place of culture and a forge for integration”. With contemporary architecture that blends in with the existing shape and structure of the surroundings.

The historic farmhouse here on the Leitenbach is gable-fronted to the street and blends in with the neighboring buildings. With their design for the library, Schlicht Lamprecht Architekten pick up on the scale and grain of the local landscape and continue it as a matter of course: the “familiar triad”, as the architects describe it, the sequence “house – stable – barn” of the typical Franconian farm, was decisive for their design for the new library in Gundelsheim. With their supplementary new building, they have recreated this historic three-part structure, after the barn has no longer existed for several decades.

This new double-gabled building “slides” over the old barn, as it were, the starting point for the “house within a house” theme that runs through the design – both in terms of design and construction. On an area of around 300 square meters, coherent yet individual areas have been created, interweaving the old with the new.

The “new barn” is not only the entrance and service area, the light-flooded room up to the gable can be used flexibly thanks to mobile shelving. Adjacent to this, in the “old barn” with its Prussian cap ceiling, the literati are presented, above which is a small gallery, the only second level in the building and intended as a retreat for young people or for concentrated work. From the old stable, the path leads into the former residential building. The space is defined by the house within a house, which welcomes visitors. Here, the volume also takes on a load-bearing function: the steel frame construction acts as a bracing core in the existing building.
The materials are also reminiscent of familiar surfaces: The colors of the terrazzo floor are reminiscent of simple utility flooring, of rammed earth flooring. The brushed spruce surfaces of the fixtures and fittings are reminiscent of raw wood, while the mud walls in the barn complete the familiar picture.

The new library in Gundelsheim is an outstanding example of the fact that it is also possible to meet building culture standards and implement high-quality architecture outside of urban centers. As part of the federal and state urban development program “Urban and local districts with special development needs – the social city” and in close cooperation with the Bavarian Chamber of Architects, the municipality not only set an example with the invitational competition in accordance with RPW 2013 to give smaller and younger architectural firms, especially from the region, a chance in the increasingly complex procedures. With this project, the people of Gundelsheim are making an inspiring contribution to inner-city development in rural areas in many respects.

All photos: Stefan Meyer

You can find more exciting projects made of wood in our series BUILDING WITH WOOD.