Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2024

urban-church-of-hua­­xiang / Switzerland

Dr.-Ing Dirk U. Moench

Pro­get­ti­sta Dr.-Ing. Dirk U. Moench
Loca­tion 7 Hua­xiang Lane, 350001 Fuz­hou City, Gulou District, Fujian Pro­vin­ce, China
Nazio­ne Chi­na
Desi­gn Team

Com­pa­ny: INU­CE • Dirk U. Moench
Chief Archi­tect: Dr.-Ing. Dirk U. Moench
Anno 2018
Cre­di­ti Fotografici

Pho­to­gra­pher: SHIKAI

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

URBAN CHURCH of HUAXIANG
Chri­stian Pre­sen­ce in the City Centre

BACK­GROUND: Sin­ce its con­struc­tion in 1938 the mis­sion church of Hua­xiang was wit­ness to radi­cal urban tran­sfor­ma­tions. Today, the buil­ding finds itself at the bot­tom of a maze of malls and offi­ce blocks. In need of addi­tio­nal spa­ce, the con­gre­ga­tion deci­ded to build a sup­por­ting church adja­cent to the histo­ri­cal site.

CHAL­LEN­GES: Again­st this bac­k­drop, the com­mu­ni­ty was concerned:
• Fir­stly, it was unclear how a Chri­stian pla­ce of wor­ship could fit into a com­mer­cia­li­zed nei­gh­bou­rhood of high and low, modern and tra­di­tio­nal buildings.
• Second­ly, the­re was disa­gree­ment regar­ding the empha­sis of the new church – what was its mis­sion? Some belie­vers stres­sed the signi­fi­can­ce of con­nec­ting with histo­ry as a sym­bol of the congregation´s resi­lien­ce again­st strug­gles past. Others hoped the pro­ject would attract young people.
• Pre­vious pro­po­sals ran­ged from a Gothic cathe­dral to a Roma­ne­sque basi­li­ca – yet none of the­se see­med to ali­gn with the com­mu­ni­ty or the essen­ce of the modern city centre.

THE CHURCH AS URBAN COUN­TER­POINT: Our solu­tion was to move away from ideal-types, instead envi­sio­ning the church as a city com­po­nent – an archi­tec­tu­ral coun­ter­point that har­mo­ni­zes sur­roun­ding dispa­ri­ties, whil­st esta­bli­shing a distinct pre­sen­ce throu­gh the effec­ti­ve use of colour and material.
• Fol­dings in the roof sur­fa­ce would orga­ni­cal­ly extend the histo­ric church´s pit­ched roof motif over the new struc­tu­re. Simul­ta­neou­sly, two amphi­thea­tres would emer­ge, allo­wing the youth to per­form open-air services.
• For the faca­de we cho­se a gra­ni­te akin to that of the old church. Yet, we depar­ted from hea­vy blocks, choo­sing to finish the exte­rior in a local peb­ble dash tech­ni­que. Brea­king down the gra­ni­te into gra­vel and then debur­ring it, its bro­wn hue would tran­sform into a soft pink, infu­sing the new church with a you­th­ful aura.
• Lastly, the main sanc­tua­ry lay­out honors the pre­fe­ren­ces of its Metho­di­st con­gre­ga­tion, esta­bli­shing a link to its mis­sio­na­ry past: Despi­te its irre­gu­lar sha­pe, Hua­xiang has a rec­tan­gu­lar inte­rior, facing a wide pre­a­ching plat­form bac­ked by the city´s fir­st church organ – an echo of the model favo­red by Ame­ri­can metho­dists. Addi­tio­nal­ly, two smal­ler sanc­tua­ries cater for the youth and the elder­ly. The com­bi­ned capa­ci­ty of all three venues is 2500 believers.

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