German architects kadawittfeldarchitektur have shared with us their proposal for the new building of the Catholic Provost Parish Church, St. Trinitatis competition in Leipzig, Germany. Their proposal was finalist in a 2009 competition. You can see more images and architect’s description after the break.
While normally the interior space of the sacred halls is considered remarkable because of its peculiar atmosphere, here the unusual roof and its light effects – as well as the church itself and the church square with its marked urban surroundings – become especially spiritually charged. It yields a site of encounter that encourages dialogue and provides an “added value” to the notion of faith and belief.
The two-part building ensemble leans like an arch into the northern edge of the lot located along the Ring Street (Ringstrasse), creating thereby an intimate yet spacious forecourt to the church with the planned building on Nonnenmühl Lane (Nonnenmühlgasse) to the south. On the one hand, this square remains the forum of the community while offering, on the other hand, a public refuge with ideological “added value.”
[The “tree of life” from the Book of Genesis is metaphorically transferred here onto the construction site: the church abstractly represents a tree trunk basis for a widely cantilevered and visibly leafy canopy that creates fascinating and magical light-effects on the ground as well as around the community forum.]
The overarching concept of the design is to bring the church, the community center, and the open-air forum under one common roof that provides an establishing identity. The funnel-shaped roof dips into the church itself. Like a horizontal church stained-glass window, its translucent panels generate reflections in the liturgical colors red, green, blue, violet, and pink, into the interior of the church as well as on the façade of the parish center and the square.
