Detail of the project ed. 2020

EBER­HARD WIM­MER – ST JOSEF WOOD­EN CHURCH

Design­er	Eber­hard Wimmer
Loca­tion	Pfar­rweg 3, 83607, Holzkirchen, Bavaria
Design Team	Eber­hard Wimmer Clau­dia Cholewa Simon Schöffmann Tama­ra León-Arteaga Markus Teichmann Alen Hausmeister
Year	2018
Pho­to credits	Pho­to 1 Exter­nal: Achim Bunz, Archiepis­co­pal Ordi­nar­i­ate Munich ( AOM) Pho­to 1 Inter­nal: Achim Bunz, Archiepis­co­pal Ordi­nar­i­ate Munich ( AOM) Pho­to 2 Exter­nal: Eber­hard Wimmer Pho­to 2 Inter­nal: Achim Bunz, Archiepis­co­pal Ordi­nar­i­ate Munich ( AOM) Pho­to 3 Exter­nal: Achim Bunz, Archiepis­co­pal Ordi­nar­i­ate Munich ( AOM) Pho­to 3 Interna:l Achim Bunz, Archiepis­co­pal Ordi­nar­i­ate Munich ( AOM) Pho­to 4 Exter­nal: Eber­hard Wimmer Pho­to 4 Inter­nal: Achim Bunz, Archiepis­co­pal Ordi­nar­i­ate Munich ( AOM) Pho­to 5 Exter­nal: Eber­hard Wimmer Pho­to 5 Inter­nal: Achim Bunz, Archiepis­co­pal Ordi­nar­i­ate Munich ( AOM)

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

The new St.Josef church and chapel are locat­ed in the pre-Alpine town of Holzkirchen near the train sta­tion. It replaces Franz Ruf’s pre­de­ces­sor from 1959–62, of which the free-stand­ing tow­er was pre­served. With the cam­panile on the street, the new reli­gious build­ings frame the new church fore­court. The wide glass front of the foy­er invites you to enter.
The build­ings of the sac­risty and the future 2nd build­ing phase adjoin­ing to the north are assigned to a cov­ered path. This is part of a cross­roads that cre­ates new con­nec­tions and visu­al rela­tion­ships on the ris­ing property.

The design idea of the church is shown in the design of the mesh-like lat­tice shell in the form of an inclined cone with a sky­light. Oval hor­i­zon­tal rings and inter­sect­ing spi­ral­ly ascend­ing diag­o­nals cre­ate the intend­ed dynam­ic and shel­ter­ing spa­tial design. A par­a­bol­ic arched win­dow com­ple­ments the light direct­ed towards the altar area with some prin­ci­ples tak­en from the old church.

The con­struc­tive wood is delib­er­ate­ly edged in detail. The tri­an­gu­lar pan­els hide tech­ni­cal inter­nals and are acousti­cal­ly effec­tive. In the small­er chapel, the tent-like rafter struc­ture is shown on the inside by con­cave acoustic shells.

The basic idea to build a build­ing of long dura­tion with read­i­ly avail­able region­al mate­ri­als, wood, con­crete and glass in a steel frame and as lit­tle tech­nol­o­gy as pos­si­ble, a build­ing easy to use and to main­tain, runs through the build­ing project. The build­ings meet the high stan­dards of envi­ron­men­tal com­pat­i­bil­i­ty and free­dom from pol­lu­tants for peo­ple that are tak­en for grant­ed today.

With the new Catholic church cen­ter St.Joseph, the town of Holzkirchen not only wins a new strik­ing main church for the parish asso­ci­a­tion with improved uses and a chapel for alter­na­tive forms of litur­gy, but also an attrac­tive urban space, a rec­og­niz­able build­ing ensem­ble and a rep­re­sen­ta­tive inte­ri­or with excel­lent acoustics for diverse socio-cul­­tur­al uses in the future. 

Eber­hard Wimmer

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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