Detail of the project ed. 2016

stone-chapel-with-wood­en-core / Brück­n­er & Brück­n­er Architek­ten Tirschen­reuth I Würzburg

Design­er	Chris­t­ian Brück­n­er, Peter Brückner
Loca­tion	Windis­cheschen­bach, Upper Palati­nate, Bavaria, Germany
Design Team	Brück­n­er & Brück­n­er Architek­ten Tirschen­reuth I Würzburg
Year	2014
Pho­to credits	Out­side 1: Brück­n­er & Brück­n­er Architekten Out­side 2, 3, 5: Con­stan­tin Mey­er, Köln Out­side 4: Peter Manev, Selb Inside 1–4: Con­stan­tin Mey­er, Köln Inside 5: mju-fotografie

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

Stone Chapel with Wood­en Core
Meet­ing Place I Con­ver­sion and Mod­erni­sa­tion House Johannisthal
with new chapel St. John the Baptist,
Windis­cheschen­bach, Upper Palati­nate, Germany

Hik­ing the nature reserve, the typ­i­cal land­scape of the region – Woods, gran­ite rock, water, open coun­try­side, the bound­less­ness of heav­en and the reduc­tion of the essen­tial. A way­side chapel emerges. „Mak­ing encoun­ters pos­si­ble“ is the guid­ing prin­ci­ple of House Johan­nisthal, a very vivid place of faith. Encoun­ters with god, nature, peo­ple and with your­self. This edu­ca­tion cen­ter of the dio­cese is locat­ed on a very spe­cial, qui­et und unspoiled place of nature – you feel like enter­ing an oth­er world. Not fast, not hec­tic, not dig­i­tal. A real place of regen­er­a­tion, refuge and relaxation.
The first con­struc­tur­al traces of the for­mer glass­works date from 1848, hun­dred years lat­er peo­ple first came to this place for con­tem­pla­tion. Our major chal­lenge and chance at the same time was to cre­ate a iden­ti­fi­able future for this place out of past and present. The aim was to form a sym­bio­sis of land­scape, archi­tec­ture and peo­ple again.
A lit­tle vil­lage came into bee­ing in Johan­nisthal. The old­new hous­es are monas­ti­cal, pre­cise and sim­ple. Sub­stan­cial. Around the vil­lage square a house for com­mon meals, two hous­es for rest, a house for inter­locu­tion and a house for prayer. The new chapel is the heart of Johan­nisthal, built of gran­ite with a smooth wood­en core. Rem­i­nis­cen­cent of a sim­ple, tra­di­tion­al shaped house. Out­side and inside. Gran­ite – spruce and fir wood – a sur­pris­ing break. It feels like being in the woods. Sun­rays. Shad­ow. Water reflects on the glass win­dow – a stair­way to heav­en. The built-in pipe organ lets the whole space sound as one instru­ment. The ancient litur­gi­cal offer­ings were brought back in a new artis­ti­cal dress out of weath­ered steel. The used mate­ri­als are the tra­di­tion­al prod­ucts of the Upper Palan­ti­nate. Gran­ite from Flossen­bürg, glas and wood from conif­er­ous trees.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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