Gertrudenberg: Conversion of a monastery

Master's Thesis by Felix Möllering

The Gertrudenberg lies northeast of the old town of Osnabrück. The Gertrudenberg monastery, founded there in the 12th century, was dissolved in 1803, after more than 600 years of existence in the course of secularisation. Parts of the medieval and baroque monastery buildings were preserved and have been used by the neighbouring psychiatric ward since the 1860s. In the 1970s a workshop for people with disabilities was added.

The aim of the design was to create a place of transition between the world of psychiatry and the world of the city. All previous uses on site were to be retained and supplemented by a temporary dormitory for former psychiatric patients and a dormitory for students. The students can support the former patients in the household and pay less rent.

The most important part of the design is the connecting element that extends along the eastern side of the property. This is the architectural interpretation of the threshold space, in which all user groups come together and from which all areas can be accessed. The threshold space is enclosed by a supporting structure made of reinforced concrete frames, on which the individual apartments of the dormitory are stacked in the form of prefabricated modules made of glued laminated timber. They are accessed via open balconies. The end point of the threshold space is a sculptural structure that encloses the entrance to an underground cave system discovered by the nuns of the monastery in the 14th century.