Windeck Castle | Reichenau | Germany
The Lake Constance

Seminar Hotel

First built in the 14th century, Windeck Castle, called Bürgle, was the outsourced guest domicile of the Peter and Paul Monastery. Today the historically valuable building is a listed building and is used by the EnBW as a seminar hotel. The uniform design concept develops from the attitude of being a guest and combines it with the prevailing sacral simplicity. This central idea is also reflected in the implementation of the extensive fire protection measures.
Use of the highest technical standards, but always in an optically compatible measure, in relation to the comprehensibility, legibility of the room sequence or the different components from the various centuries.

The existing building did not meet the requirements for structural fire protection, and for economic reasons it was considered to close the building.
With the construction of a new terrace, whose surface takes over the function of the upper edge of the terrain and thus guarantees the height ≤ 8m, the building could be classified as a low height building (GK 1). As a result, the fire resistance class requirements for the structure and floor ceilings were reduced from F60 to F30. Compensation was achieved by installing a comprehensive fire alarm system so that the missing fire resistance of the floor slabs (in the existing building FO) was not required. As the terrace is located in a landscape conservation area, an open construction was required in order not to seal the surfaces.





The load-bearing wooden support with beams in the seminar room (1st floor) is a listed building, but does not meet the requirements for a fire-resistant construction. As a visible element, it particularly shapes the impression of the room and must therefore be preserved in its unclothed state, without fire protection modifications. In addition, one of the common rooms is not connected to a necessary corridor, but the first escape and rescue route leads through this seminar room.

The installation of an external staircase, as a second structural escape and rescue route, on the existing terrace in front of the seminar room, compensates the deviation from the LBOAVO (General Implementation Regulation of the Ministry of Economics on the State Building Code Baden Württemberg, Germany). As the first escape route, a necessary stairwell has been constructed. The monument protected flammable wooden false ceilings could be reinstalled after the fire protection renovation.