The Siegfriedstein castle complex is being constructed on the castle hill and the terraces below. It comprises a tower, a residential building with chapel (the palas), a castle courtyard, service buildings and a castle garden. The inner ward includes the residential tower with ring wall (Construction Phase I).

In general, several terms are used to describe buildings intended for residence and representation within the core castle — most commonly Wohnbau (residential building), Wohnturm (residential tower), Palas and Saalbau (hall building), and occasionally Kemenate (women’s quarters) — though the definitions of these terms are not always clearly distinct.

The hall (Saal) was the spatial expression of representational aspirations and, from the High Middle Ages onward, appears in various forms in nearly every castle. In the Friesach castle complex, it is included within the Gothic residential building.

Residential buildings in High Medieval castles presumably followed a roughly defined spatial layout. However, many rooms were used for multiple purposes, making their functions difficult to determine today. Such flexible spatial organisation is especially characteristic of castles from the 12th and 13th centuries.

The palas is a key part of any castle complex. The term is widely used and often applied broadly to any multi-storey residential building in major feudal castles from the 11th to early 13th centuries that included, in addition to living quarters, a particularly large hall. A typical feature of the palas is its representative combination of residential and hall functions.

A Saalbau (hall building) is understood to be a structure consisting solely of one or more halls, which may be accompanied by associated side rooms, but not by living spaces such as a parlour or bedchamber.

The term festes Haus (“solid house”) was often used in the 11th century to describe a single stone residential building within a largely timber-built castle complex. However, early examples of such buildings have not survived in castles; if they exist at all, they are only detectable through archaeology. If a building has a roughly square floor plan, it is more likely to be a residential tower.