CONVERSION OF YOUTH RESIDENTIAL HOME OBERTRUM on a gentle slope

Save the child

The child and youth welfare organization “Rettet das Kind” offers 9 inpatient services in the province of Salzburg. One of these is the youth residential home in Obertrum – which provides socio-educational residential care for young people with difficult family backgrounds.

In 2019, the board of “Rettet das Kind Salzburg” approached us to redesign, modernize and restructure their aging youth residence in Obertrum.

Ground floor and first floor were inhabited, but everything became too small. The basement was used only for storage, the attic was completely unused. Potential therefore for expansion.

We have structured the building so that daily communal life continues to take place on the first floor and the upper floor houses the private rooms of the young people. We were able to create more space by moving the entrance, locker rooms, theme recreation and sports to the basement, which, however, now has the appearance of a first floor thanks to the excavation of a shrub slope in the hillside. From here you can access a small courtyard, which we have converted into a recreational or basketball court.

The previously unused attic was made usable by raising the roof truss by 75 cm. It provides space for a quiet home manager’s office, a larger meeting room and a crisis room for a separate care facility when needed.

All new or relocated walls are constructed using timber framing, clad with larch wood panels. The floor, doors and windows are also made of larch. Together with a few white walls, this makes for a wonderfully harmonious picture – what a feeling of home for the young people and their caregivers.

The exterior appearance was also intended to reflect wood – so larch wood shingle roofing was chosen for the weathered façade, and larch wood sheathing for the covered entrance area. The existing balconies running all around, no longer desired, were interrupted by increasing the floor plan of 2 rooms. We also succeeded in creating a fall protection system with high architectural standards. A lamella cladding with varying spacing forms the finish to the facade here.

We wish all the young people much joy in their newly renovated home and all the love for the future. Your team from m3