Religious education - restoration of an abbey school in Seckau, Austria

Architectural Review, The, June, 1999 by Peter Blundell Jones

The most difficult and sensitive part of the conversion - and it is not obviously so - was the landscaping and reforming of the main court. This is the main outdoor room in the complex and the all-important route to the church. Debris from the collapsed northern tower had never been properly cleared, so the whole area was set rather high, with somewhat narrow and abrupt steps leading down to a narrow paved well by the church's West Front. Giencke has cleared it out and made it more amphitheatre-like, with the church door as stage. Steps turn into seats and end in a zigzag wall on the north side, while opposite a ramp veers off south then returns, allowing wheelchair access as the equal alternative. Many architects would have felt the need for a more formal, rigid and axial arrangement, playing up the Baroque aspect and trying to turn something born by accretion into a once-and-for-all set-piece. Giencke's asymmetrical handling is masterly and appropriate for our time, for it complements the asymmetries inherent in the setting - both the asymmetrical siting of the route within the long court and the slight misalignment of church and gatehouse. It gently adds another layer.

The redevelopments at Seckau have taken years of painstaking and careful work, and in the end much of it is invisible or at least not obvious. For most people, the focus of attention must remain the 900 year-old building with its accreted layers and fine examples of craftsmanship from every period, so Giencke's discreet additions will fade into the background. His skill at revealing the old and setting it in a sympathetic context, removing degradations and preserving features that had almost vanished will be taken for granted.

In 50 years, many of the gaudier contrivances featured in these pages will already be demolished and long forgotten, and perhaps even Giencke's additions will then seem dated. But short of a major disaster, Seckau will still be there, with the layers of history and memory that give it its special character.

Architect

Giencke & Company

Design team

Volker Giencke, Arpad Ferdinand, Georg Giebeler, Sandra Flury, Petra Fischer

Consulting engineer

Alois Winkler

Lighting

Christian Bartenbach

Photographs

Ralph Richter