Description

Constructing two new churches as a single building was something of a rarity at the beginning of the seventies, especially in a village numbering no more than 3200 inhabitants. The ensemble stands on a slight incline in the centre of the village. Seen from above, the building consists of three elements, whose outer edges form a square measuring 46 by 46 metres. The square is rotated so that its corners point due north, south, west and east.

Arriving from the west, one approaches the corner of the tower-like block, which is located at the lowest point on the plot and with a height of 12.5 metres reaches the eaves line of the other buildings. From below, the complex presents a closed face. However, directly behind the stele to the left and right of the tower, a square and passageway open out, which then curves to the right and rises with the incline, lending the space a stage-like feeling. The switch from positive to negative, from mass to emptiness, gives the complex an urban quality.

Due to the clay-rich consistency of the soil, the church and tower rest on 156 driven piles. The building itself is constructed out of industrially produced materials. Standardised prefabricated concrete panels, each 35 centimetres thick and 1.5 metres wide, were placed on the ground and then welded and grouted at the seams. The maximum height of the elements is 9 metres; each panel reaches from the floor to the ceiling. The concrete is lined with a compound of white marble grit and white powdered cement, and the surface emulates the limestone typical for the region of Solothurn.

Both churches have much in common: the division into a lower zone for the social and cultural parish activities and an upper level for church services; the semicircular, full-height projection for the access ramp, a plan in the form of a quarter circle; the positioning of the sacristy behind the rear wall of the altar; the placing of the organ against the wall next to the ambo or pulpit; and the orientation of the altar at 90 degrees to the sector of the circle. Nevertheless, despite their mirror-image symmetry, both churches have their own character. In the Catholic church, which seats 420, the shape of the rooflight is such that it also illuminates the baptistry and confessional chapels. In the Reformed church, seating 380 people, the circular rooflight serves solely to emphasise the altar and pulpit. The materiality of the sacred objects of the liturgy is also different: steel, chrome and glass in the Catholic church; oak stumps and blocks in the Reformed church.

The decision to build one church rather than two, is usually an attempt to maximise potential, one of rationality and efficiency. In Langendorf, however, the combination of Catholic and Reformed Christ Church is a child of the ecumenical movement which in the mid-sixties, when the building was being designed, was experiencing an upsurge of popularity.

Altermatt, Josef (et al.): Kirchliches Zentrum Langendorf, Kleine Kunstführer no. 1294, Munich and Zurich 1981 | Architektur und Wettbewerbe, no. 54/1968, pp. 15- | Brentini, Fabrizio: Bauen für die Kirche. Katholischer Kirchenbau des 20. Jahrhunderts in der Schweiz, Luzern 1994, pp. 236-, p. 294 | Christen, Willi E. (Ed.): Schweizer Architekturführer 1920-1990, Vol. 2, Zurich 1994, p. 138 | Ineichen, Hannes (Ed.): Manuel Pauli. Bauten und Projekte 1956-1983. Stadtarchitekt von Luzern 1983-1995, Monografien Schweizer Architekten und Architektinnen, Vol. 3, Blauen 2001, pp. 104- | Kunst und Kirche, no. 3/1978, pp. 122- | Müller, Gerhard (Ed.): Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Vol. XVIII Katechumenat/Katechumenen – Kirchenrecht, Berlin and New York 1989, plate 24 before p. 481 | Das Münster, no. 2/3/1972, pp. 98- | Rucki, Isabelle, Huber, Dorothee (Ed.): Architektenlexikon der Schweiz 19./20. Jahrhundert, Basel 1998, p. 412 | Wälchli, Roland: Impulse einer Region. Solothurner Architektur 1940-1980, Solothurn 2005, pp. 194- | Werk, no. 4/1972, pp. 214- and no. 6/1972, pp. 357-

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Originally published in: Rudolf Stegers, Sacred Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2008.