Page 107 - AIT0524_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Brückner & Brückner, Tirschenreuth
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Längsschnitt • Longitudinal section
Bauherr • Client Ev.-Lutherische Gemeinde Neumarkt
Standort • Location Kapuzinerstr. 3, Neumarkt i.d. OPf
Nutzfläche • Floor space 770 m 2
Fotos • Photos Constantin Meyer, Köln
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 126
NEW APOSTOLIC CHURCH
IN NEUMARKT I. D. OPF
The projects by Brückner & Brückner Architekten include
many sacred buildings. With the most prominent of all
building projects, they can do what interests them most:
connect yesterday with today and tomorrow. This also
applies to the church remodelling in Neumarkt. There,
they succeeded in dematerializing the church interior
from the 1930s – for maximum atmosphere and light.
T he history of the church in Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate is
extremely varied – in terms of its denomination, its function and its
architecture: over the past 500 years, it has been a Catholic monastery
church, a Protestant-Lutheran church, a granary, a military hospital, a
bakery and a residential building. Destruction and remodelling have
repeatedly resulted in changes. An overall design concept was sought
in vain before the most recent remodelling measures were implemen-
ted. The church also had structural and technical defects: The renova-
tion of the roof truss and vaults was just as urgent as was the renewal
of the building services and of the fire protection. In future, the church
will be used for religious services and cultural events. In the exterior
façade, which has remained almost unchanged, the now completed
renovation work can be recognized in details such as the newly desi-
gned portal: Elegant glass joints run through the solid oak wood of the
door and provide the first glimpses. Inside, a completely new sense of
space is surprising. The church interior, which until recently breathed
the spirit of the 1930s, appears simple, warm and bright. Everything
seems to have been cast from a single mould. The colourful stained-
glass windows are now covered with a semi-transparent layer of fabric
so that the once vibrant colours still shine through delicately. Two wide
spiral staircases lead up to a newly designed gallery with a completely
refurbished organ. The larger-than-life statue of Christ from the 1930s,
which used to dominate the entire church with its austerity, is located
in the side chapel. Elsewhere, historical substance was uncovered and
further developed. For example, the choir in the east of the church –
originally part of the Capuchin monastery and separated off in recent
decades and used as parish rooms – is now part of the church interior
again. Behind the altar, a curved loop of black steel also designed by
the architects, lies this powerful centre of the church, characterized
by soft lines and brightness, with a baptismal font set into the floor.
Homogeneous surfaces and broken spatial edges lead to visual dema-
terialization – to a space as if built from light.
AIT 5.2024 • 107