Graz Castle

Palimpsest

Graz Castle is the palimpsest of centuries of transformations, functional and representative adaptations, changing values and meanings. Historical traces are to be made tangible with strong references to the Styrian landscape and history to the political and functional center of the country, which the castle has housed for centuries. To achieve this, the exterior space is to be broken up.

In the first courtyard, historical layers that make the building history of the castle visible in this area are layered on the surface of the square. This is achieved by embedding the ground plan of the original Palas, the main wing of Frederick III’s 15th century town castle, in the existing grid structure of the courtyard. While the first courtyard is intended as a representative square with hard surfaces, the second courtyard is designed as a dense forest landscape, symbolizing the Styrian landscape and its vegetation.

“(The design) is certainly understood in the context of the motif of overlayering as a radical gesture that makes a forward-looking socio-political statement in the fundamental transformation of historical structures. The preservation of biodiversity as an existential requirement for the future and the simultaneous dismantling of hierarchical elements in public space seem right and appropriate in the context of Graz Castle as the seat of the provincial government.”

Assessment of the jury

The third courtyard will be largely unsealed. Towards the east, a “mineral landscape” is created with clods of natural and artificial stone that depict ideas, memories and inventions in the context of local history.