Description

The elongated building stands on the north side of a small square, where several roads and paths meet. In the immediate surroundings, there are many houses from the sixties and seventies, built at a low density typical for a location of this kind and period. Existing elements that determined the design were a magnificent lime tree with a lush crown and a tiny chapel. The Rudolf-Alexander-Schröder House lends both of these their due prominence while giving them a recumbent background, in which only the projecting bell frame offers a clear pendant. All in all, one sees an ensemble, the parts of which – the green tree, the red roof, the light render of the old building, the dark cladding of the new building – complement one another through contrast and balance.

The timber frame rests on foundations of compacted concrete. The posts measure 14 by 14 centimetres and stand at two metre centres. The building occupies a double square of 20.45 by 10.3 metres. The south side continues in a straight line; on the north side, however, the building steps back twice. Here, a concrete right angle serves as a wall to sit on and as the boundary of a terrace. Externally, the building is characterised, above all, by its two monopitch roofs, from south to north the broader roof rising at a pitch of 16 degrees, the narrower roof falling at 30 degrees. The tension caused is not just sculptural; it is also functionally legitimised. The large roof surface covers the church space and the parish hall, the sacristy and the cloakroom, the small roof surface the bell cage and the entrance lobby.

To celebrate mass, the congregation assembles in the main church space. Quarry tiles on the floor and spruce planks on the walls characterise the space, the height of which is about a quarter of its length and breadth. Since the space is square in plan, the 114 chairs are best arranged in a wide circle; in this arrangement the altar and ambo can be placed in the centre. The roof structure is of lighter appearance, with trusses and chords in timber and diagonal, round steel tie-rods. On the south side, the light enters through a section of full-height glazing; on the north side, a full-width row of five mullioned windows the height of the trusses provides additional light. Artificial light is cast upwards and downwards by small lamps on the tops and sides of the bottom chords of the trusses.

With reference to the exterior-interior relationship, the concordance of volume and function, this church proves itself to be genuinely modern architecture. Clearly discernible are the influences of American timber construction, the chapel by Heikki Sirén and Kaija Sirén in Espoo, Finland, from 1957, and the Church of the Holy Spirit by Hans Busso von Busse in Schaftlach, Germany, from 1967. The Rudolf-Alexander-Schröder House does not make a lot of fuss about its form; it is understandable at first glance, indeed almost ordinary. This is an example, in the best sense, of “architecture without architects”.

The Architectural Review, no. 12/1974, p. 391 | Detail, no. 5/1974, Konstruktionstafeln | Kunst und Kirche, no. 2/1981, pp. 80-

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