Youth Hostel in Possenhofen

Situated in a residential area near Lake Starnberg in Bavaria, the youth hostel reflects the surrounding landscape in its design. The spaces are laid out around a central courtyard. Vertical circulation within the two-storey main building is via a lift and a number of staircases, which link the communal areas on the ground floor with the bedrooms on the upper level. Parallel to the long courtyard axis is a nearly 20-metre concrete staircase, a massive sculptural object that resembles a gangway. The powerful balustrades conceal the rhythm of the stairs and lend the angular structure a gliding, linear form. The concrete was coloured with black pigments and finished with a polyurethane coating.