In 1992, entrepreneur Carl Richard Montag founded what is now the Montag Foundations – five separate charitable entities. He seeded them with properties near the former government district in Bad Godesberg: the war-damaged Villa Prieger and the neighboring Raiffeisenhaus from the 1950s on Adenauerallee formed the foundation's core, later expanded with the Rhine-facing Ingenohl and Heckmann villas. To maximize this park-like campus, the team envisioned densifying the site through student housing – a solution addressing Bonn's acute housing shortage while honoring the foundation's core mission: "acting and shaping with social responsibility." A 2016 competition among seven architectural firms was won by Schmitz Architekten (Cologne) partnering with RMP Stephan Lenzen Landschaftsarchitekten (Bonn). Beyond carefully preserving the two riverside villas, the design introduces two striking new buildings that engage in a quiet, respectful dialogue with the existing structures – restrained yet confident. Schmitz Architekten dubbed them "Romeo and Juliet": four-story towers with slightly elongated polygonal footprints, positioned at right angles to one another. Together with the historic villas, they define a shared plaza. The new buildings feature green-tinted ceramic facades that echo the surrounding trees while providing a subtle counterpoint to the restored plaster and stone exteriors of the original villas.

A shared platform – elevated above the new buildings – connects the two villas, now home to the Montag Foundations' new headquarters. A newly constructed public staircase descends from here to the Rhine and its riverside promenade. Working closely with heritage authorities, the villas underwent comprehensive restoration that thoughtfully integrated new openings, creating fresh visual and spatial connections within the buildings and to the landscape beyond. In Villa Ingenohl, for instance, a generously scaled window was cut into the historic façade to frame panoramic Rhine views. The two new barrier-free student residences offer apartments of 22 to 32 m² each, with five to nine units sharing a common living arrangement. Each cluster centers on a generous community room – complete with kitchen, loggia, and laundry facilities – that also serves as the circulation hub for that floor. This layering of semi-private and communal zones throughout the buildings fosters genuine community connections. Notably, this principle extends across both structures: ideally, all 55 residents will bring a commitment to the common good and actively support the Montag Foundations' work as engaged neighbors.

www.schmitz-architekten.de

Photography Credits:

Jens Kirchner
www.jens-kirchner.com

(Published in CUBE Cologne 02|23)