Sakralbau

Room for Religion: the future sustainability of religion by means of models and contemplation about religious education and meditation rooms
Both religious education, as well as build forms of sacred space, seems to increasingly diversify in recent years. This phenomenon can be considered as a symptom of contemporary religion, in the way it manifests itself in an increasingly individualized and pluriform society. In this essay, the concrete forms and concepts of meditation rooms are explored for the benefit of a more clear terminology and typology instead of a terminology that mixes up concepts like monoreligious, interreligious and multireligious. These models are compared with models of religious education. This comparison shows that religious education, as well as meditation rooms, indeed seems to diversify on the basis of a transformed society. Boundaries have become more fluid as can be regarded for example in more fluid borders or no borders at all between domains in the living space such as kitchens, living areas, sleeping areas and so on. A more traditional understanding of a living
space consisting of well-defined areas with a specific purpose seems outdated as well as the idea of a monofunctional space for religion (exclusive liturgical use) or monoreligious religious education. Religion is not one specific domain that can be confined in one specific concept or form that satisfies all societal needs sufficiently.

Im Kirchenbau im Deutschland der Nachkriegszeit wurde viel gewagt. In der Sakralarchitektur entstanden während der sechziger Jahre eine Reihe experimenteller Schalenbauten. Der Ingenieur Stefan Polónyi hat in kreativer Zusammenarbeit mit verschiedenen Architekten die Tragwerke für rund 20 Kirchen und Kapellen geplant. Das Ringen von Architekten um den gestalterischen Ausdruck in Umbruchszeiten traf glücklich auf einen experimentierfreudigen Ingenieur, der die Grenzen seines Fachs energisch zu erweitern suchte – im Dienste der Religion und im Dienste der Architektur.

Es ist recht offenkundig, dass die öffentliche Meinung den Denkmalbegriff oft auf das Vertraute und Wohlgefällige reduziert, auf schöne Schlösser, Kirchen und romantische Stadtbilder. Sollte sich die Fachkompetenz der Denkmalpflege dann nicht besonders darauf konzentrieren, das fremd Gewordene zu bewahren? Das Vertraute, scheint es, ist ja schon dadurch geschützt, dass es uns gemütvoll am Herzen liegt. Doch inwieweit gehören Denkmale überhaupt zu der Welt, die uns vertraut ist?

Movement rituals have always been constitutive for the building type of a pilgrimage church. In the competition for the Neviges Mariendom, however, Gottfried Böhm was the only architect who consistently developed his design out of movement. This is already evident in Böhm's expansion of the building program to include a pilgrimage path, which was not part of the competition.
In the second version, Böhm modified the central building, which in the first design was still approximately round and surrounded by an irregular, polygonal ring of chapels and niches, into an oval floor plan. In contrast to the circle, the oval shows a clear direction that takes up the pilgrim's movement and leads inwards. In this way, the interior of the church forms a continuation of the pilgrimage.
Böhm succeeds in a remarkable way in developing the expressive, sculptural form of his pilgrimage church from its function as a matter of course. The lecture therefore focuses on the interplay between the church interior and ritual sequences of action. Step by step, it traces the spatial experience of the pilgrims and asks in what way the paths of movement of the church visitors are framed architecturally. Which architectural means are used to convey and strengthen spiritual experiences? How does the architect organize simultaneous religious processes such as communal worship and private devotion? How does he connect the different building programs spatially and what is the liturgical concept behind them? And to what extent does this reflect the tradition of church building history and at the same time reveal forward-looking solutions that anticipate the most recent liturgical reform?
Böhm's merit is to transfer timeless sacral qualities into a contemporary formal language. He designs a church building that can easily be dated into its time without disconnecting from the past. Although the building is spatially and materially recognizable as post-war architecture, it fits seamlessly into the history of church construction. With the extraordinary expanse of the almost column-free space and the vaulted concrete folding vault, Böhm succeeds in creating a convincing mixture of traditional morphology and contemporary design.