In the medieval town centre of Paderborn, Germany, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin converted the former historic ‘St. Vicenze Hospital’ into Jacoby Studios, a new headquarter for a family-run company.
The original building was originally a Capuchin monastery dating back to the seventeenth century. The buildings were used as a hospital from 1841 onwards, and were severely damaged during the Second World War. As such, the complex underwent extensive reconstruction and additional building works in the years that followed. The conversion of Jacoby Studios involves the removal of post-war additions, revealing the original building fabric of the monastery once again.
Says David Chipperfield of the project, ‘ Rooted in an appreciation of its complex historical context, the Jacoby studios create a new urbanistic whole out of fragments. The project combines a wide range of the practice’s experience – reinterpreting historic buildings, combining the old with the new, balancing landscape and building – to provide a comfortable and stimulating workplace. Thanks to a highly engaged and committed client, it has been a very enjoyable process and has become an emblematic project for us.
The existing chapel façade, the cloister, the east building and the seventeenth-century cellar in particular are preserved and restored, revealing a picturesque ruin structure of quarry-stone masonry with the former cloister at its heart. New extension wings, ranging from two to three-storeys, take their cue form the orthogonal structure to the north, west and south of the original buildings.
Embedded in a garden designed by Wirtz International, the resulting ensemble one against becomes part of the cityscape as a well balanced composition of different volumes, unique in its identity while maintaining historic continuity.
