Brother Klaus Chapel
(3 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
Location:
Show on map
Rißdorfer Weg
Mechernich-Wachendorf
53894
Germany
coordinates:
50.5927505 6.7318563
Building names(s): Brother Klaus Chapel / Bruder Klaus Kapelle / Brother Klaus Chapel
Architect/Designer:
Peter Zumthor
architect website:
Other Information:
Completion date: 1997
Function:
Opening hours:The chapel is open from 10.00h to 16.00h – but this might change depending on the season.
getting there:
From Wachendorf, the Chapel is on the right hand side along the Rißdorfer Weg . The road to the chapel has been closed for cars, so you need to walk a bit from the car park to reach the building.
Last modified: 3 June, 2009 | Suggested By kiwi kid
for the chapel, zumthor developed a primitive building technique which could be – as I have understood it – executed by the people expected to use it afterwards.
trees felled in the vicinity were tied together in a tee-pee shape which became the inner formwork, triangular in section. the outer formwork was a much simpler vertical slipform. a dry concrete mortar was stamped into the cavity between the two forms. finally, a slow-burning fire was lit on the floor, drying out and shrinking the tree trunks, disengaging them but at the same time blackening the walls.
the process is explained much better here.
the building you meet is less primitive than its construction. I was immediately struck by the concrete. the technology of using dry mortar is roman in origin and that seemed a perfect starting point for what is essentially a roman catholic shrine. when the door was opened, the dark triangular space seemed to tell a very different story. “gothic”, was my first thought but then, as my eyes grew accustomed to the dark, the imprint of the tree trunks took on an overpowering presence, reminding me of roman descriptions of meetings with their germanic neighbours and how the kings would hold court in simple log houses.
I don’t believe there is a linear narrative waiting to be uncovered in the succession of apparent contradictions but there is a sense of being connected with the entire history of architecture, of witnessing a dialogue through time, in the way some of louis kahn’s or utzon’s buildings do.
if anything, the almost violent texture of the torched concrete brings us closer to certain conditions in modern art – zumthor has mentioned the arte povera movement as an inspiration.