Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2024

tam­­kang-church / Germany

Rodri­go Reverte

Pro­get­ti­sta Yu Han Michael Lin
Loca­tion Kan­ding 5th Rd, No. 155, 251, Tam­sui District, New Tai­pei City
Nazio­ne Tai­wan
Desi­gn Team

Behet Bon­d­zio Lin Architekten

Anno 2021
Cre­di­ti Fotografici

©YuChen Chao Photography

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

A Church within a Fortress.

All church buil­dings are built with the hope of inter­pre­ting the Chri­stian doc­tri­ne per­spec­ti­ve of the
world (welt­an­schauung in Ger­man). The Tam­kang Church empha­si­zes eter­ni­ty, uni­ver­sa­li­ty and
community.
Becau­se of the dif­fi­cul­ty of acqui­ring land rights and the cro­w­ded­ness of metro­po­li­tan spa­ces in
Tai­wan, reli­gious archi­tec­tu­re in this coun­try often ought to con­front the distan­ce bet­ween man
and hea­ven cau­sed by the ver­ti­cal mas­sing of buil­dings. Unli­ke Euro­pean chur­ches that are able
to crea­te sanc­ti­ty throu­gh struc­tu­re, ele­va­ted spa­ce and myste­rious lighting bet­ween the ground
level and roof, the Tam­kang Church also has to face the chal­len­ge of ful­fil­ling the buil­ding code
and floor area requi­re­men­ts by ver­ti­cal­ly stac­king both the day-to-day and sacred spa­ces of the
church. How to build a holy and sanc­ti­fied pla­ce that embra­ces the love and com­pas­sion within
socie­ty is the most cri­ti­cal focus of the desi­gn of the Tam­kang Church.
The archi­tec­tu­re of cathe­drals often uses the cru­ci­form sha­pe as the main ele­ment to orga­ni­ze its
spa­ce; the desi­gn con­cept of the Tam­kang Church is also based on the cross but in a broader
sen­se. It inter­wea­ves people’s lives throu­gh the church cele­bra­tions and their dai­ly lives and brings
natu­re into city life.
The site is loca­ted on the nor­thern­mo­st side of the island of Tai­wan, Dan­hai in New Tai­pei City is
a win­dy and rai­ny city on the coa­stli­ne. The buil­ding faces the harsh con­di­tions of this seashore
and embra­ces the beau­ti­ful sce­ne­ry of this envi­ron­ment. Althou­gh the custo­mi­zed thick double
laye­red walls can be used as an archi­tec­tu­ral ele­ment that regu­la­tes the cli­ma­te they also play
the role of intert­wi­ning lives within the space.
The mas­si­ve mate­ria­li­ty of the buil­ding responds not only to the cli­ma­te con­di­tions of its site but
also to the regu­la­tion and fun­da­men­ts of con­struc­tion in a pla­ce so wild­ly affec­ted by
earthquakes.
The pre­sen­ce of con­cre­te as the main buil­ding mate­rial takes form using dif­fe­rent treat­men­ts and
tech­ni­ques. The walls that con­form the skin of the buil­ding are mostly clean-washed exposed
con­cre­te on the insi­de whi­le they show the imprint of wood boards on the outsi­de. Loca­ted at the
entran­ce of the buil­ding an ima­ge of Jesus was para­me­tri­zed and trans­fer­red to the
form­work to cast the con­cre­te with it. On the ninth floor behind the bap­ti­sm spa­ce, the­re is a wall
cast with a steel tubes pat­tern to achie­ve a wall car­ved with cur­ves. On the same floor, the
con­fes­sion room on the outsi­de is fini­shed with rou­gh con­cre­te whi­le its inte­rior is cast with fine-washed expo­sed con­cre­te, play­ing with the sym­bo­li­sm of the tran­si­tion that takes pla­ce during the
confession.
The win­dow orga­ni­za­tion is con­cei­ved as a con­stel­la­tion of sha­des of lights. This can be
expe­rien­ced coming up to the third and fourth floors, whe­re the church spa­ce is. In the main stair
spa­ce in bet­ween walls on the west side, in the after­noon the sun per­forms an inten­tio­nal cubist
pain­ting made out of light.
Chur­ches in Tai­wan play a dif­fe­rent role in socie­ty than they do in Euro­pe. Senior Pastor
Albert Huang from the Tam­kang Church once said that the Tam­kang Church would be a church
whe­re anyo­ne would be wel­co­me, and he wan­ted to put the focus on its role of social welfare—
under the pre­mi­se of reco­gni­zing “eve­ryo­ne is a sin­ner,” and “nobo­dy is per­fect,” it would help
reme­dy the defec­ts in the socie­ty. Thus, the Tam­kang Church lea­ves more than half of their
faci­li­ties to be used as a social wel­fa­re cen­ter, empha­si­zing com­mu­ni­ca­tion but not hierarchy,
secu­ri­ty but not distan­ce. The archi­tec­tu­re must reflect on its social respon­si­bi­li­ty, bea­ring the
cross to ser­ve this land.

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