Guignard & Saner Architekten AG

Description

The property is perched on a slight incline in a residential area north-west of the village centre of Dornach. The existing parish hall and the vicarage behind it are set about sixty metres back from the street and three metres below street level. The compact building fits in with the scale of its surround-ings, and its sculptural volume gives a hint as to its special use. The concrete building with its two slightly offset gabled roofs is flanked by two staircases that connect the lower courtyard with the upper church square. The foyer of the church is accessed via a slightly raised, sheltered area immediately before it. The church hall is softly lit through a seemingly woven light filter. Entering the hall through a passage panelled in dark wood, one reaches the main room, designed almost all in white. The folded ceiling forms two gables, creating two spaces of different heights in between the outer axial gabled roof and the inner structure. Cone-shaped skylights pierce through these spaces and evenly illuminate the room, as well as creating interesting shadow play when the sun shines in.