Description

Spread from northwest to southeast, the complex stands on a patchwork of lawns in the centre of a new suburb inspired by the garden city ideal. With a total length of almost 52 metres, the complex consists of a low elongated section to the rear for the hall, a pair of offices, the sacristy and the waiting room for the baptismal congregation. Shed roofs made of zinc crown the whitewashed masonry walls. Bowing slightly, they slope towards the front; only one of them has a double undulation that sets it apart as the church and centre of the building.

The almost 16 metre high bell tower stands offset from the building to the left and slightly in front of the partially glazed entrance. Twelve strips of glazed bricks mark the openings out of which the bells toll. A similar decoration marks the position of the altar zone on the outside wall to the southeast. A small chapel of rest nestles up against the tower; the small church courtyard is enclosed by a white wall.

One enters the church through a vestibule on one side and sees the pine enclosure for the organ on the left, on the right the gallery supported by circular columns. The plan of the church is almost quadratic. With a length of 13.4 metres, 11.5 metres wide at the back and 12 metres at the front, the room widens towards the black granite altar. A larger and a smaller block of pews made of birch offer seating for 128 persons, with space for a further 50 on the gallery. The aisle between the rows leads towards a point slightly to one side of the centre of the altar and the “apse” as if deliberately liberating the interior from the inevitability of the processional route.

The whitewash on the walls and the brown brickwork of the floor are reminiscent of the medieval churches of cities in northern Europe. Several openings in three of the four walls, some low down, some high up, provide illumination. In the corner of the south wall a window spans from floor to ceiling. A “pillar” arranged in front of it serves as a form of “baffle” against bright sunlight. Naked light bulbs dangle from the narrow pine boarding on the ceiling of the 9.5 metre high space (measured at its midpoint). Closely spaced in tight rows and dangling on long threads, they form an intermediary plane not unlike a starry sky. As such, the colourless glass spheres contribute considerably to the spatial definition of the interior.

The influence of Alvar Aalto is clearly evident in its reference to forms from the landscape – the up and downswing of the roofs, its interlocking volumes, which from the side resemble shoved together ice floes – in its use of timber planking, of white and brown and in its play of light over soft forms. However, it is the incorporation of qualities from the architects’ own previous design for the interior of the Egedal Church in Kokkedal, Denmark, that helped the architects achieve such a harmonious design for the interior of the church in Tornbjerg.

Architektur und Wettbewerbe, no. 174/1998, cover, pp. 44- | Arkitektur DK, no. 8/1995, cover, pp. 444-, p. 478 | Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Kim: Guide to Danish Architecture 2. 1960-1995, Copenhagen 1995, p. 315 | Kunst und Kirche, no. 1/1998, pp. 30-

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