New Apostolic Church / Bez+Kock Architekten

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A flat ramp on the long side leads visitors through four emblematic pivot gates to a churchyard with benches on all sides. Three rock pears characterize the center of this courtyard in front of the church and create a place of arrival, tranquillity and transition from the noise of the busy main road and the hectic pace of everyday life to the solemnity and contemplation of the church service. This place is also well suited as a meeting point for the congregation before and after the events.Text description provided by the architects.The brightly shimmering, 15-meter-high new building of the New Apostolic Church rises out of a tree-lined meadow flanked by the multi-lane federal road 294, a parking lot and the adjacent railroad line. The sculpturally shaped, polygonal structure marks the western entrance to the city of Pforzheim and is immediately recognizable as a sacred building. Its sloping roof rises from east to west and is crowned at its highest point by a striking skylight above the church hall.The chosen material combination of clay plaster, silver fir wood and white terrazzo works with the natural colors of these materials. This gives the sacred space an independent and authentic character and a sensual, warm feel. Light-colored natural stone chippings were pressed into the still damp exterior plaster of the church, giving the simple material of plaster the necessary value.The church is accessed along a continuous spatial axis that links the churchyard, the foyer and the church hall. The visitor's path leads towards the light: The focal point of the central axis is the altar made of rammed earth and its rear wall, which is illuminated by warm grazing light from above. Daylight filtered through wooden slats also enters the church interior via the side windows, so that the noticeably introverted room nevertheless appears very bright and inviting.