Johanna Olpp & Ruben Titze
Adaptive Reuse of Church Buildings. RWTH Aachen (Germany).
There are 16 churches in the Nuremberg north district, all of which have become too large for their current use. These churches are only regularly used by a fraction of their residents. However, they are historical testimonies that are closely connected to the founding histories of the city districts. They are neighbourhood centres. They are the largest public buildings in the districts. They have a significant impact on the city’s panorama. They are the heritage of all the people living in the district.
That is why these buildings, which are too large for their shrinking parishes, must be re-appropriated by the general city population. They should once again become truly public buildings that do justice to their size and presence in the urban space. There must also be room for classical church use. For this, rooms of appropriate size, adequate heatability and a sacred atmosphere are needed. A spatial concept must be developed that also takes into account the overcrowded services during Christmas and continues to make these and other large gatherings possible. A holistic concept was developed for all 16 churches that complement each other. There are 3 categories:
- churches that continue to be used purely as churches
- church buildings that are no longer used as churches
- churches that are given additional uses
On the basis of the data collected, a decision was made as to what use the building should be put to and to what extent the congregation can still use the churches. We clarified whether weekly services will continue to take place or whether religious use will be limited to major Christian holidays. We are convinced that secondary use does not weaken the church as an institution, but anchors it more firmly in the district.
The full project can be viewed on www.kirchenmitnutzung.de/en
SCHUNCK cannot guarantee the correctness of content and expression. The participants themselves are responsible for their entries. The copyright of the projects underlies to the authors, any reproduction or use of the shown material is strictly forbidden.