Detail of the project ed. 2016

immanuel-church-and-parish-cen­tre / Sauer­bruch Hutton

Design­er  Matthias Sauerbruch
Loca­tion  Cologne, Germany
Design Team  

Prof. Matthias Sauer­bruch, Louisa Hut­ton, Juan Lucas Young;
Jür­gen Barten­schlag, Vera Hartmann;
Tom Geis­ter, Anja Vogl, Karoli­na Szna­jder, Nina Sles­ka, Anja Frenkel, Andrea Fren­sch, Matthias Cre­mer, Anna Czigler, Jörg Albeke, Meta Popp;
Year  2013
Pho­to credits  

pho­to 1 external:
KGK_MargotGottschling_ImmanuelKirche_632.jpg:
entrance situation
© Mar­got Gottschling

pho­to 2 external:
KGK_AnnetteKisling_1331.jpg
bell tow­er seen from the green space
© Annette Kisling

pho­to 3 external:
KGK_MargotGottschling_ImmanuelKirche_694.jpg
the church build­ing and its \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\“green vestibule\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”
© Mar­got Gottschling

pho­to 4 external:
KGK_AnnetteKisling_1285.jpg
entrance detail
© Annette Kisling

pho­to 5 external:
KGK_MargotGottschling_ImmanuelKirche_228.jpg
bell tow­er seen from the street
© Mar­got Gottschling

___

pho­to 1 internal:
KGK_AnnetteKisling_1235.jpg
view across the main nave towards the altar, with opened side nave
© Annette Kisling

pho­to 2 internal:
KGK_MargotGottschling_ImmanuelKirche_608‑2.jpg
view from the altar towards the gallery window
© Mar­got Gottschling

pho­to 3 internal:
KGK_AnnetteKisling_1506.jpg
wall of piv­ot­ing doors between the foy­er and the main nave
© Annette Kisling

pho­to 4 internal:
KGK_AnnetteKisling_1381_gallery.jpg
wor­ship­pers on the gallery
© Annette Kisling

pho­to 5 internal:
KGK_AnnetteKisling_1585.jpg
view of coloured screen behind the altar space
© Annette Kisling

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

The Immanuel Church in a sub­urb of Cologne was realised with­in a lim­it­ed bud­get after the fusion of two protes­tant con­gre­ga­tions who joint their forces to cre­ate a com­mon church and com­mu­ni­ty build­ing. It rein­ter­prets the typol­o­gy of the clas­si­cal basil­i­ca for the need of a con­tem­po­rary, active and dynam­ic parish. Its com­pact and flex­i­ble floor plan high­lights the role of the com­mu­ni­ty. At the same time the inte­gra­tion of the sur­round­ing nature into the scheme, as well as the sobri­ety of form and the straight­for­ward hon­esty of its unclad tim­ber struc­ture all con­verge into a joy­ful atmos­phere yet a sacred aura — cre­at­ing both a social cen­tre and a qui­et place of wor­ship and solemnity.
The 840m² project con­sists of a church, a small chapel and a bell tow­er, grouped around a cir­cle of mature trees that forms the impres­sive “vestibule” of the church and a qui­et oasis for the pub­lic. Enter­ing the church, a low foy­er opens out into a high cen­tral nave. A gallery ris­ing above the foy­er over­looks the nave and offers extra seat­ing. A matt glass screen on its rear brings in day­light and sub­tly fea­tures the play of leaf shad­ows of the tree out­side. The main nave is flanked by two lat­er­al wings hous­ing the sac­risty, a kitchen and sev­er­al meet­ing rooms for all sorts of activ­i­ties of the con­gre­ga­tion. These can also be joined with the cen­tral nave in var­i­ous con­fig­u­ra­tions for fes­tive days and oth­er occasions.
In the apsis behind the altar a screen of 3800 small slats of coloured tim­ber reach­es up to the sky­light above the altar. Its strong chro­mat­ic com­po­si­tion becomes grad­u­al­ly paler towards the sky, sug­gest­ing an abstract image of a ris­ing move­ment towards the light — an homage to the Chris­t­ian imag­i­na­tion. When the organ — hid­den behind the screen — starts to play, one gets the impres­sion of being in front of a musi­cal wall in a place that is decid­ed­ly out of the ordi­nary, where the sen­sa­tions of space, sound and colour blend togeth­er, uplift­ing one from every­day life.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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