Religious Building. Church Receives Architecture Award

A religious building in Upper Bavaria shows how unique contemporary architecture can be. A look from outside and inside.

Author I Photos: Wolfgang Conrad

The parish church "Seliger Pater Rupert Mayer" in Poing in Upper Bavaria has received two architecture awards this year. The contemporary religious building convinced with its clear design and an extraordinary outer skin made of 15,000 white ceramic tiles. The building owner, the Archbishop's Ordinariate in Munich, is also satisfied with the new church, as the shape and height of the building emphasize the townscape.

Architectural form

The structure is determined by the material impression of the white tiled landscape and the contemporary architecture. Inside the ceramic facade with its finely structured, three-dimensional, sharp-tiled rows of tiles, individual light points of the sun reflection set infinite accents. Color and light determine the effect of the architectural form.

Spatial effect

In the physical sense, white represents the sum of all colors of light, represents the divine, perfection, purity and is considered the most perfect color. The changed white effect in the tiled shapes of the church facade is particularly noticeable when the light is different: in backlighting as well as in diffuse sunlight, the facade and the clad roof landscape with the color reflections of the sky appear as if canceled.

In order to understand a building as a whole, one must not only look at the outer shell. The interior with its division and design is also part of it.

In the case of the Poingen church, the interior with its function and structure appears to have been designed first. In fact, after the light silhouette of the church interior, the geometry of the room shell was created, which in turn was scaled down for the plastic design of the ceramic tiles.

When entering the church, the liturgical quality is impressive, which is characterized by three light openings following the Trinity, and which thus gives it its own special atmosphere. The morning light from the largest opening fills the room with the music from the gallery, the light from the vertical zenith opening hits the altar and tabernacle, the northern side light from the window to the pond emphasizes the font.

There are also repetitions in the interior of the use of materials; The floor, altar island and wall plinth of the church are made of the same Upper Bavarian natural stone as the solid outer plinth and, with their specific surface, create a room-forming, trusting color mood that harmonizes with the higher-level room white, which also makes the church room appear higher. Here is a quote from the jury's assessment, which “… was enthusiastic about a differentiated, liturgically sensibly organized spatial effect”.

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The Bavarian State Association of the Association of German Architects recognized the church in the "Special Buildings" category for its "captivating clarity and sculptural form".

Reason:

"On the one hand, contemporary religious buildings must follow the architectural tradition and symbolism of the respective faith … and help shape the development of architecture".

The "Big Nike", which the Munich architecture firm Meck received for the new sacred building design, is the highest ranking architecture award of the BDA.

Reason:

Because among other things it is shown "..how architecture can be used to create temporality."