Detail of the project ed. 2024

court­­yard-church-of-luoyuan / Switzerland

Design­er Dr.-Ing. Dirk U. Moench
Loca­tion Gux­i­a­jing, Fuwan Road, Luoyuan Coun­ty, Fujian Province, China
Nation Chi­na
Design Team

Com­pa­ny: INUCE • Dirk U. Moench
Chief Archi­tect: Dr.-Ing. Dirk U.
Year 2021
Pho­to credits

Pho­tog­ra­ph­er: SHIKAI

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

COURT­YARD CHURCH of LUOYUAN
Fam­i­ly Min­istry in a Devel­op­ing Zone

BACK­GROUND: Luoyuan is a town in Fujian, a province famous for tea ter­races, its Hak­ka eth­nic minor­i­ty and their ring-shaped court­yard hous­es, the so-called Tulou. Cur­rent­ly, Luoyuan is devel­op­ing a new zone to its east. While the process is replac­ing vil­lages with high ris­es and pol­lut­ing farm­lands with fac­to­ries, it also presents the local con­gre­ga­tion – what remains of the Angli­can mis­sion in the region – with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand their min­istry to the new­com­ing population. 

CHAL­LENGES: Antic­i­pat­ing cou­ples with chil­dren to move in, the con­gre­ga­tion decid­ed to build a church dis­tinct­ly address­ing fam­i­lies´ needs. With any chance, they hoped it might even retain the mem­o­ry of the community´s rur­al past.
• Placed in the midst of indus­tri­al des­o­la­tion, the com­plex­i­ty of this project lied in cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment that would be safe and attrac­tive to chil­dren, all the while mak­ing an icon­ic state­ment for the Chris­t­ian pres­ence in Luoyuan´s countryside.
• The pro­gram fea­tures dis­tinct ser­vice halls for adults and youths, activ­i­ty rooms for Sun­day school dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed by age, admin­is­tra­tion, a library and a tea house for events. 

VER­NAC­U­LAR­I­TY & UNI­VER­SAL­I­TY: To ful­fil this brief, our design draws upon a blend of strate­gies – some that res­onate with Fujian natives´ per­son­al expe­ri­ences, and oth­ers that weave uni­ver­sal Chris­t­ian motifs into the fab­ric of the community:
• Sim­i­lar to fortress­es, Tulous used to serve as pro­tec­tive dwellings for fam­i­ly clans. Incor­po­rat­ing ver­nac­u­lar ele­ments such as the con­cen­tric orga­ni­za­tion around cir­cu­lar pavil­ions, the Court­yard Church des­ig­nates a nur­tur­ing gar­den area for chil­dren to roam freely, and evokes the tra­di­tion­al scene of the region´s vibrant and fam­i­­ly-ori­en­t­ed lifestyle.
• In con­trast, the ser­vice hall reacts to the des­o­la­tion of its envi­ron­ment by con­jur­ing a sense of whole­ness, seclu­sion and sal­va­tion. Its ellip­ti­cal shape is defined by a dou­ble-facade com­posed of 107 707 pieces of stained glass. “De Pro­fundis” – the art­work depict­ed – emanates an atmos­phere of pro­found blue, trans­port­ing believ­ers to a metaphor­i­cal place where dark­ness is dis­persed by divine light. Illu­mi­nat­ed at night, the church becomes a shin­ing bea­con. With an area of 1 412 square meters, it stands as the largest of its kind in China.

Explana­to­ry report of the project
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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