Seeing the light: in the best Baroque tradition, light is used to create spatial and atmospheric illusions in this new church.The old episcopal city of Regensburg has an impressive history of ecclesiastical architecture. Its cathedral and numerous Baroque churches and monasteries are among the finest in Bavaria. Today the city's cultural wealth is reinforced by a strong economy, transforming Regensburg into one of Germany's most prosperous towns. In 1998 the Catholic Church Fund (Katholische Kirchenstiftung) held a competition to find an architectural solution for a growing parish community in the suburb of Burgweinting. The Cologne-based partnership of Konigs Architekten won with an uncompromisingly modern design. At first sight Ulrich and Ilse Konigs' proposal is a radical departure from the familiar forms of ecclesiastical architecture. Next to the original twelfth-century parish church and cemetery is a stark ensemble of cubes comprising the new church of St Franziskus, a free-standing steeple, vicarage and parish centre. The nature and function of the box housing the church is not apparent from a distance. There are no external hints or clues: no religious symbols, stained-glass windows or other ecclesiastical decorum DECORUM. Proper behaviour; good order. 2. Decorum is requisite in public places, in order to permit all persons to enjoy their rights; for example, decorum is indispensable in church, to enable those assembled, to worship. . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The contrast between the unceremonial exterior and the emotions conjured by the internal spaces could not be greater. Entering the nave through the brightly coloured glass doors, you are sucked into a huge elliptical el·lip·tic or el·lip·ti·cal adj. 1. Of, relating to, or having the shape of an ellipse. 2. Containing or characterized by ellipsis. 3. a. space. Immediately the eye takes off on a flight along the circular orbit
In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics a circular orbit is an elliptic orbit with the eccentricity equal to 0. that flows from the contours of its form. The plan reveals two overlaying ellipses Ellipses is the plural form of either of two words in the English language:
Property that a curve is below a straight line connecting two end points. If the curve falls above the straight line, it is called convex. spaces bulging the ellipse ellipse, closed plane curve consisting of all points for which the sum of the distances between a point on the curve and two fixed points (foci) is the same. It is the conic section formed by a plane cutting all the elements of the cone in the same nappe. outwardly. Inside the ellipse is the raised circular platform of the altar and rows of differently curved pews. Otherwise the space is empty and pure. No suspended lamps, loudspeakers or religious symbols clutter the interior; there is only light, colour and surface texture. In the best traditions of Baroque architecture, light is used to create spatial and atmospheric illusions. Daylight is the main source of illumination Noun 1. source of illumination - any device serving as a source of visible electromagnetic radiation device - an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose; "the device is small enough to wear on your wrist"; "a device intended to conserve water" , constantly changing in rhythm and intensity. As the elliptical vortex is completely open at the top, it literally floods the nave. A white PTFE PTFE polytetrafluoroethylene. membrane prevents a direct view of the conventional flat roof and acts as a screen in the choreography of natural and artificial light. Employing a combination of closed, semi-transparent and clear roof panels, daylight can be dramatically directed (on to the altar, for instance). Once the artificial lights are switched on, slowly alternating cloud formations materialize on the membrane, hypnotically drifting across the ceiling plane. The glare of this virtual openness and semi-transparency is counterbalanced by the dark grey-green slate flooring and the solid rendered brick walls. Bricks were laid incrementally angled so that their profile smoothly follows the sloping inner surfaces. The thick wash of light green wall colour heightens the impression of suppleness paired with monumental solidity. Everywhere in the building light seeps in from unknown sources. Every crevice crevice /crev·ice/ (krev´is) fissure. gingival crevice the space between the cervical enamel of a tooth and the overlying unattached gingiva. crev·ice n. offers a new spatial and atmospheric potential. At night the varying degrees of light, temperature and intensity are visibly displayed in the colourfully back-lit windows. Apart from the corresponding yellows in the door to the nave and tabernacle Tabernacle (tăb`ərnăk'əl), in the Bible, the portable holy place of the Hebrews during their desert wanderings. It was a tent, like the portable tent-shrines used by ancient Semites, set up in each camp; eventually it housed the Ark , they are the only strong colours in an otherwise rigorously but radiantly monochrome building. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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