Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2020

EINAR DAHLE + HIL­LE MEL­BYE – TEGLEN SPIK­KE­STAD CHURCH

Desi­gner Joa­chim Andersen
Loca­tion C.A. Johan­sens plass 1, 3430 Spik­ke­stad, Norway
Desi­gn Team

Aina Dahle from Einar Dahle Architects
Kaja Mel­bye from Hil­le Mel­bye Architects
Joa­chim Mid­jo Ander­sen from Hil­le Mel­bye Architects
Mik­kel Haa­vald­sen from Hil­le Mel­bye Architects

Anno 2018
Pho­to credits

All pho­tos by Jiri Havran

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

“An archi­tec­tu­re bet­ween inti­ma­cy and distan­ce, bet­ween the gran­dio­se and the subtle.”

Einar Dahle Arki­tek­ter and Hil­le Mel­bye Arki­tek­ter recei­ved 1st pri­ze in the 2014 desi­gn com­pe­ti­tion for a new church and cul­tu­ral cen­ter in Spik­ke­stad, Nor­way. In May 2018, “Teglen” (mea­ning “the Brick” in Nor­we­gian) was com­ple­ted and inau­gu­ra­ted. The buil­ding is shared in both owner­ship and use by sta­te church and muni­ci­pa­li­ty, and embo­dies a con­se­cra­ted church room, a neu­tral cere­mo­nial room, a café, acti­­vi­­ty-rooms, admi­ni­stra­ti­ve offi­ces, and muni­ci­pal services.

BACK­GROUND
The star­ting point for the desi­gn com­pe­ti­tion was a com­plex and ambi­tious pro­gram, with appa­ren­tly oppo­sing inte­rests that were to be uni­ted within a com­mon ground. The expec­ta­tions of the local com­mu­ni­ty for a cul­tu­ral cen­ter were to meet the needs of the church for sacral spa­ces and sequen­ces, which again were to meet the poli­ti­cal ambi­tions of the muni­ci­pa­li­ty for shared use and reli­gious neu­tra­li­ty. For­fei­ting com­pro­mi­se, the­se ten­sions gave rise to a desi­gn which is tai­lo­red to both the expres­sed and unex­pres­sed inten­tions of the pro­gram. And an archi­tec­tu­re that inve­sti­ga­tes the rela­tion­ship bet­ween inti­ma­cy and distan­ce, bet­ween the gran­dio­se and the subtle.

CON­CEPT
“The Brick” is con­cep­tual­ly per­cei­ved as a brick volu­me, ele­va­ted from the public town squa­re and gen­tly inser­ted into the adja­cent slo­ping ter­rain. The key act of lif­ting the intro­vert cere­mo­nial func­tions up over the ground floor lets the extro­vert func­tions such as café, acti­vi­ty rooms and muni­ci­pal ser­vi­ces con­nect to the town squa­re. With its red brick floo­ring, the town squa­re con­nec­ts the buil­ding with the train plat­forms like a “red carpet”. 

The ico­nic east faça­de, the “wall of kings”, rises ver­ti­cal­ly up over the town squa­re, esta­bli­shing a clear orien­ta­tion and a strong fond motif. The resul­ting sha­pe of the buil­ding dra­ws resem­blan­ce and refe­ren­ce to both tra­di­tio­nal church spi­res and the towe­ring brick chim­neys of the Spik­ke­stad brick fac­to­ry for­mer­ly situa­ted on the nei­gh­bo­ring pro­per­ty. A “Yel­low Brick Road” in mind. 

FLE­XI­BI­LI­TY AND SIMUL­TA­NEOUS USE
The plan con­cept for the upper level can be read as an inter­pre­ta­tion of a tra­di­tio­nal cru­ci­form plan, or even a cross-in-squa­­re plan, whe­re both main entran­ce and ver­ti­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion is pla­ced in the nor­thern tran­sept. The main body is divi­ded into three main spa­ces, the con­se­cra­ted church room to the east, the neu­tral cere­mo­nial room to the west, and an inter­con­nec­ting cen­tral spa­ce – the cros­sing, and sepa­ra­ted by floor-to-cei­­ling oak-clad fol­ding doors.

LIGHT
The cere­mo­nial rooms are main­ly natu­ral­ly lit. Sky­lights bathe the brick walls of the aisles and the site-cast con­cre­te of the altar wall in a soft light. Gene­rous glas­sed aper­tu­res cut seam­les­sly throu­gh the many layers of the building´s skin and inte­rior struc­tu­re, con­nec­ting the inner spa­ces with the outer spaces.

ORNA­MENT
The orna­men­ta­tion of the buil­ding has been uni­fied with con­struc­ti­ve ele­men­ts and tech­ni­cal solu­tions. In the faça­de, small cros­ses are pro­tru­ded within the bric­k­work. Insi­de, gla­zed bricks with holes sup­ply air and acou­stic dam­pe­ning to the cere­mo­nial rooms. The altar area is deco­ra­ted and lit by 27 small aper­tu­res in the adja­cent wall of the tower. The altar area is defi­ned by a “car­pet” of whi­te gla­zed brick inte­gra­ted into the poli­shed con­cre­te floors, which by the altar wall beco­mes illu­mi­na­ted cle­rus bench. In this was orna­ment and tra­di­tion finds its pla­ce within a con­tem­po­ra­ry architecture.

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