Detail of the project ed. 2020

MAG ÉPÍTÉSZ MŰTEREM – ST GEORGES ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Design­er Zoltán Győrffy
Loca­tion Gát street 1. 4225, Debre­­cen-Józsa, Hungary,
Design Team

Archi­tect: Zoltán Győrffy
Year 2015
Pho­to credits

Pho­tos: Batár Zsolt

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

The site has been allo­cat­ed by the city of Debre­cen to the Catholic Church to build a new house of wor­ship large enough to accom­mo­date at least 200 church­go­ers. It is some­what out of the ordi­nary: it is locat­ed where the for­est belt hug­ging the Tócó Stream and a hous­ing estate meet. We intend­ed to design a build­ing which is com­ple­men­tary to its rur­al-like sur­round­ings, suit­able for its future use and appro­pri­ate­ly artic­u­lates its divine nature for time to come.

We have designed a promi­nent gate fea­tur­ing at the site entrance mark­ing the direc­tion of arrival. The build­ing itself has been posi­tioned away from the entrance in order to make space for an area suit­able for mul­ti-pur­­pose con­gre­ga­tion as well as to allow the entry into the build­ing to feel like a rit­u­al. The gate on one hand sep­a­rates the street-side pub­lic area from the inner open air con­gre­ga­tion space but on the oth­er it con­nects the two.

The homoge­nous look­ing mass of the church depicts the arche­type of the house. Every detail of the build­ing was pro­duced, man­u­fac­tured or worked on by local crafts­men and arti­sans. From the dis­tance the build­ing appears to be an out­line only, but from clos­er inspec­tion the details that have been left on the fab­ric by the crafts­men are very much notice­able. These details tell fur­ther sto­ries to the informed admirers.

The used nat­ur­al mate­ri­als make the build­ing look homo­ge­neous. The har­mo­ny between the brick and tim­ber ensures the uni­ty of the build­ing. The bricks have been point­ed with slur­ry, a typ­i­cal local tech­nique. From the dis­tance it looks as the bricks have just been ren­dered but their rich tex­ture, detailed nature and inten­si­ty, which fluc­tu­ates depend­ing on the light con­di­tions, becomes obvi­ous when admired from a short dis­tance. The tim­ber with its con­struc­tion method, size selec­tion, place­ment and colour has adjust­ed well to the fin­ish­es, cre­at­ing even stronger homo­gene­ity between the struc­tur­al elements.

The light, the mate­ri­als and the for­est all become organ­is­ing ele­ments. The con­tin­u­ous­ly chang­ing illu­mi­na­tion of the mass of the build­ing — inside just as much as out­side — advances, togeth­er with the litur­gi­cal events, into dra­mat­ic pow­er as intended.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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