From Church to Columbarium: the German approach to the conversion of underused places of worship

Authors

  • Giovanni Carbonara University of Rome

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2036-1602/6478

Keywords:

Church, Colombarium, Germany, Transformation, Dominikus Böhm, Hans Schwippert

Abstract

A building can be abandoned for several reasons, such as structural, functional, economics, socio historical issues. If it is a church, other factors had to be considered. In fact, the secularization of modern society is a wide phenomenon that involves all faiths from Catholics to Protestants, both in rural district and metropolis. The sacral building loses gradually its functionality and, due to high management costs, the owners (principally dioceses) had to optimize their financial resources. In particular, my study is focused on Germany where there is an ongoing transformation process of underused churches, in order to give them a new function and a new life. It led to convert church into ossuary (or columbarium). For this reason, it is important to stress that the cremation was not introduced in Germany until 1879 and since then columbaria were often built on external walls of many cemeteries. The current assumption is the impossibility to expand existent graveyards and the need to recycle religious buildings in ruins. The building sacredness is preserved, whereas liturgical function fails or is reduced. As a simple empty building, the church keeps its external volume but the interior space is adapted to the new functional requirements. This process, which started from 1990s, is emerging in the last decade. Two churches will be here analyzed. In particular, St. Kamillus in Mönchengladbach was built by Dominikus Böhm (1928-1931) and converted by BDMP | Architekten BDA (2015); St. Bartholomäus in Cologne was designed by Hans Schwippert (1960) and converted by Kissler + Effgen (2014).

References

Aa.Vv., Paolo Antonio Martini (a cura di), L’arte del costruire nel costruito: Recupero e rinnovo urbano, Electa, Firenze 1982

Luigi Bartolomei, “Morte e vita nuovi equilibri nel paesaggio italiano”, in IN_BO. Ricerche e progetti per il territorio, la città e l’architettura, Università di Bologna, 2015, 6(8), pp. 143-149

Luigi Bartolomei, Giorgio Praderio, “Evoluzioni contemporanee nell'architettura cimiteriale contemporanea”, in IN_BO. Ricerche e progetti per il territorio, la città e l’architettura, Università di Bologna, 2012, 3(4), pp. 1-4

Françoise Choay, L’allegoria del patrimonio, Officina, Roma 1995.

Winfried Nerdinger, Cornelius Tafel, Guida all’architettura del Novecento. Germania, Electa, Milano 1996, p. 278

Alois Riegl, Stilfragen. Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der Ornamentik Stilfragen, Berlin 1893. [trad. it. Alois Riegl, Problemi Di Stile. Fondamenti Di Una Storia Dell'arte Ornamentale, Feltrinelli 1963.]

Giuseppe Strappa (a cura di), Edilizia per il culto. Progettare. Metodi, tecniche, norme, realizzazioni, UTEC, Torino 2005, vol. 5.

Chiara Tilocca, Andrea Zangari, A. (2015) “Grabeskirche – La chiesa die sepolcri: un nuovo modello per cimiteri di quartiere? “, in IN_BO. Ricerche e progetti per il territorio, la città e l’architettura, Università di Bologna, 2015, 6(8), pp. 229-241

Wolfgang Voigt, Ingeborg Flagge (a cura di), Dominikus Böhm 1880-1955, Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen / Berlino 2005

http://www.grabeskirchekoeln.de/

http://www.dbk.de/zahlen-fakten/kirchliche-statistik/

https://www.wettbewerbe-aktuell.de/en/contents/821/Umgestaltung+der+Kirche+Sankt+Bartholomaumlus.html

http://www.hahn-helten.de/projekte/sakralbauten/529-umgestaltung-sankt-bartholomaeus-koeln-ehrenfeld.html

http://www.koelnarchitektur.de/pages/de/news-archive/8787.htm

http://kissler-effgen.de

www.st-kamillus-kolumbarium.de

www.bdmp-architekten.de

Published

2017-07-31

How to Cite

Carbonara, G. (2016). From Church to Columbarium: the German approach to the conversion of underused places of worship. IN_BO. Ricerche E Progetti Per Il Territorio, La Città E l’architettura, 7(10), 274–285. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2036-1602/6478

Issue

Section

Architecture and research