A Place Designed to Foster Community and Togetherness

The planned revitalisation aims to create a place that actively promotes community life, social interaction, and mutual support. Great importance is placed on preserving the historic substance of the building while ensuring future viability and long-term sustainability for the newly adapted quarter.

From the very beginning, the property owners (the Augustinian Canons of Herzogenburg Abbey), the Federal Heritage Office, the municipality, as well as future residents will be actively involved in the planning and development process.

The project concerns a building complex of approximately 300 years of age, which has remained unused for some time. Historically, and in direct connection to the abbey, it served residential, agricultural and craft-related purposes, including livestock farming. These original functions are to be reinterpreted and revived in contemporary form, returning meaning, purpose and activity to the currently dormant spaces.

The complex is located directly beside Herzogenburg Abbey – a place where faith, pastoral care, cultural engagement and communal life have been cultivated for over 900 years. Founded in 1112 by Bishop Ulrich I of Passau, the abbey developed into a spiritual, agricultural, and cultural centre of the region. Its Baroque reconstruction in the 18th century – including works by Jakob Prandtauer and later Joseph Munggenast – gave the abbey much of the architectural character that remains distinctive today.

This unique historical background, combined with the immediate proximity to the monastery, offers a rare opportunity to transform the ensemble once again into a vibrant place: an urban, social, cultural, and spiritual anchor for the region.

The multi-generational housing project planned next to the abbey is intended to become a pioneering flagship development with regional and supra-regional impact. Through innovative forms of living, working, and communal engagement, it aspires to honour the historic fabric while contributing meaningfully to the sustainable future of the region.

The building itself, together with the surrounding grounds, provides ideal conditions for the intended uses.

The large four-winged farmstead measures approximately 107 × 97 metres and offers a ground-floor net usable area of roughly 4,000 m². A comparable area could be created through expansion of the upper floor. In total, a potential of around 5,000 m² net usable area may be achievable. Exact figures can only be determined through detailed and conscientious planning.

Adequate daylight provision – through façade openings as well as openings within the pitched roofs – will be essential for residential and working uses. Close coordination with both the owner and the Federal Heritage Office will therefore be necessary to ensure that the conversion respects monument protection requirements and complies with building regulations.