We hadn’t actually planned a Moorman lodge. However after the Moormann company acquired a plot of land adjacent to our base with the intention of building a warehouse, a dilapidated, listed historical building came as part and parcel. The construction – dating back to 1671 as home to the ‚Village bakery’, later became the Court bakery for the castle residents and delivered to the neighbouring Castle on the mountain, and later still became a guest house and following that a youth hostel– was so in need of repair that it wouldn’t have survived the imminent, mountainous winter conditions without emergency roof repairs. This promised to be the start of a new project: A new roof only makes sense when the attic is in sound condition. An attic requires storeys, which can support its weight and so on and so on. Firstly the historical structure had to be ascertained and exposed, while ensuring that as much of the original substance of the building as possible remains intact. The rebuilding unearthed numerous container loads of building rubble. Light is a major factor, proportions and materials. For example clay panelling, made simply of straw and clay, is used for the interior walls and provides a natural room temperature. The boss fiddles about with the crew and workmen on every detail and it is not out of the question that a wall is rebuilt three times just for a difference of a few centimetres. The end result will be 13 holiday apartments/rooms for Moormann guests and for all those interested in Design. It should be a meeting place, in the ‚Main chamber’ there’s room for 25, seated around the table or cooking at the stove.

It has an uncomplicated air, like a lodge with ‚a few knocks’. With the number of books on offer (in all rooms and in the library – the ‚Literary chamber ’), there is plenty of chance to lose oneself in the „near silence’ . No TV, there is a large selection of CDs. One room is for back packers (‚Mountain pad’) with 6 sleeping cells – there are little kitchens for self-catering in all other holiday apartments. The building is progressing rapidly and with each step we attempt to retrieve the building’s original energy and dignity.

Designer: Nils Holger Moormann Location: South Germany next to the factory of Moormann

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