Leipzig, Germany
German architecture practice Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten, Fuguach Architecture, and Yen Partnership Architects design an 11-story building, a high-rise concrete block topped with an angular and pointy roof reminiscent of Gothic architecture.
Named Tamkang Church, the building will house a church and social welfare center in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
This monumental tower becomes sublime with increasing height, and finally, the spire disappears into the cloud.
The architecture of cathedrals often uses the cruciform shape as the main element to organize its space.
The design concept of the Tamkang Church is also based on the cross, but in a broader sense.
It interweaves people’s lives through the church celebrations and their daily life and brings nature into the life of the city.
The building is designed to house event spaces, lecture halls, congregation areas, classrooms, and welfare spaces stacked atop one another and connected by staircases and lifts at the tower’s corners.
“The architecture of cathedrals often uses the cruciform shape as the main element to organize its space,” states Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten.
“The design concept of the Tamkang Church is also based on the cross, but in the broader sense…it interweaves people’s lives through the church celebration and their daily life and brings nature into the city life,” it continues.
The main congregation area is a double-height, 600-seat auditorium on the third and fourth floors, with a cruciform window visible on the building’s exterior.
On the top floor is another church hall for ceremonies such as weddings and baptisms, illuminated by colored, stained-glass-style windows inset into the steel frame of the angular roof structure.
A skylight above a baptismal font in this space is oriented to receive direct sunlight at 2 pm, during ceremonies.
The customized thick double-layered walls can be used as an architectural element that regulates the climate they as well play the role of intertwining lives within the space.
The Tamkang Church leaves more than half of its facilities to be used as a social welfare center, emphasizing communication but not hierarchy, and security but not distance.
The architecture must reflect on its social responsibility, bearing the cross to serve this land.
Project: Tamkang Church
Architects: Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten
Partners in Charge: Fuguach Architecture and Yen Partnership Architects
General contractor: Fuguach Architecture
Building System: RC construction
Photographers: Yu-Chen Chao Photography
