Archinect - News

Henning Larsen unveils its new design for a 'modern monument' in Copenhagen

2022-10-07T12:34:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has announced their recent commission to design a new church in Copenhagen — the Danish capital’s first in over 30 years.

Set amongst a clearing of trees in a forested area, the Ørestad Church is designed to be a communal gathering nexus that "offers solace" to parishioners and is "untouched by the bustle of the city," according to Global Design Director Jacob Kurek.

Rendering by VividVision. Courtesy of Henning Larsen.

Made of wood and wood shingle, the 18,837-square-foot (1,750-square-meter) church is said to reflect the open landscape and expressive architecture found in Ørestad.

A linear arrangement of clustered volumes aims to reference the treeline of a forest when approached from the adjacent Amager Fælled, a nature reserve in Copenhagen.

Image courtesy Henning Larsen.

Rendering by VividVision. Courtesy of Henning Larsen.

The design's inverted facade creates an "urban shelf" activated by seating niches, gaming areas, and a book exchange that was included as the...

Beyer Blinder Belle renovates mid-century modern landmark church in Washington, D.C.

2021-11-01T17:17:00-04:00

New York-based architecture practice Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB) is known for projects that focus on the "planning, restoration, and the design of new buildings." Their latest project for the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., focuses on expanding and renovating one of D.C.'s historic mid-century modern church sites.

Designed by American architect Harold E. Wagoner in 1967, BBB continued with its 2016 master plan for the Church by designing two additions that offer new meeting rooms and added public space for members. According to firm Partner Hany Hassan, FAIA: "Our work introduces a contemporary entry and new central staircase, expressive and open in design, to draw people through all three levels of the Church."

National Presbyterian Church Image © Alan Karchmer/Courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle

The new buil...

Lee Bey reminds us of the beauty and importance of Chicago's Black Churches

2021-02-08T16:54:00-05:00

Photographer, writer, and lecturer Lee Bey has used his experience as a Chicago native to help uncover, highlight, and preserve the historical significance and importance of architecture within Black communities. In 2017 Bey showcased Southern Exposure, an exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Biennial consisting of photographs of buildings located on Chicago's South Side.

After years of documenting, Bey has created a deeper meaning behind these buildings. The images he's captured are reflections and visual narratives of his perspectives and viewpoints behind the camera lens. In tandem with his exhibition, Bey published his book Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago's South Side. Previously covered on Archinect, he shared in conversation with Iker Gil that "The exhibition and the book grew up together [...] The idea was to not make the book an exhibition book, but to use the exhibition as inspiration and to go beyond the show and showcase more buildings and pla...

Designing churches opened doors for Donald While, Michigan's first black licensed architect

2020-02-26T16:56:00-05:00

In the early 1930s, White became the first African-American to earn a degree from the University of Michigan's School of Architecture. He went on to become the first licensed black architect in the state.

Michigan Radio's Doug Tribou met with Karen Burton, co-founder of Noir Design PArti, a group that celebrates the work of African American architects in Detroit, at Rightway Baptist Church. The church as designed by architect Donald White, who was Michigan's first licensed black architect.

"If we look at architecture today, we know that there are fewer than 5% African-American licensed architects," said Burton in the meeting. "For Donald White, back in the early 1930s, late 1920s ... even fewer. Certainly no one that he could really look up to to say, 'That's who I want to be like.'" This was a similar sentiment architecture student Demar Matthews expressed in his piece here on Archinect, the lack of black architects for him to look up to.

She goes on to explain how black architects at the time had to find someone to commission their projects and how churches tended to have the financial means to realize architectural work.

New skyscraper church in Hong Kong seeks to "create a peaceful and solemn" place of worship

2019-10-31T13:57:00-04:00

The Rocco Design Architects-designed tower, which will hold the Wesleyan House Methodist International Church, sits on a teardrop-shaped site in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. With 800 square meters of plot and 11,000 square meters of program, the task proved challenging for the design team. The resulting solution manifests itself as a vertical church that integrates the sanctuary, chapels, activity halls, social service floors, and pastoral offices into the tower.

A pragmatic consideration was implemented in the adjacencies of the program. A large congregation hall sits above the main sanctuary, inviting worshippers to gather after the service. Offices and pastoral residences are situated on adjacent floors, providing a seamless connection for its residents, while still seeking to retain distinct identities.

The exterior language of the structure flexes a subtly curved facade with a solid core east facing wall sporting casement windows as opposed to a curtain wall. A sustainable effort inte...

Walter Maria Förderer is the masterful modern architect you've never heard of

2019-05-07T13:48:00-04:00

In the 1960s, Walter Maria Förderer designed eight churches in Switzerland and Germany. Influenced by Le Corbusier, and even more so by the collages of Kurt Schwitters and Gothic architecture, Förderer designed cascades of concrete blocks and strange totemic objects that now form some of Europe’s most avant-garde religious buildings.

It is always a delight and a mystery when one learns of a new name to add to their account of architecture history — a delight because with their name comes new buildings, textures, contexts and drawings to discover; a mystery because their near erasure from historical canon can appear suspiciously willful.

While Gottfried Böhm and Le Corbusier are perhaps the first to come to mind when considering the significant architects of Post War European churches, Walter Maria Förderer rightly deserves a spot on the list. Like Corbusier, Förderer was a Swiss architect obsessed with the structural and material properties afforded by concrete, and was uniquely determined to treat the material as he had during his earlier career as a sculptor.

The Church of St Nicholas, by Walter Maria Förderer. Photo by David Willen.

The Church of St. Nicholas (above) is one of his most exemplary works. Though the building does employ a small handful of modernist principles, it signals an interest in post-func...

New gothic tower added to Westminster Abbey by architect Ptolemy Dean

2018-05-30T15:40:00-04:00

Nestled into an armpit of Westminster Abbey, hidden behind a flying buttress that leaps up to the chapterhouse, stands what appears to be a gothic space rocket. Sinuous bronze tracery loops its way up the faceted shaft, framing crystalline windows between bands of lead arrowheads, like go-faster stripes shooting towards the heavens.

British architect Ptolemy Dean's new addition to Westminster Abbey, The Weston Tower, is the first significant addition to the gothic structure since 1745. This new $30m tower provides the first public access to the church's triforium space above nave. Here visitors can climb to the attic and visit the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries housing royal and religious artifacts dating back thousands of years.

Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira realizes white concrete church in France

2018-02-13T15:18:00-05:00

The Pritzker Prize winning architect, Álvaro Siza, has completed a white concrete church in France's Brittany region. The church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, consecrated over the weekend in the presence of over 300 people, is the first church built in the area in over 40 years—the only, thus far, Breton church of the 21st century.

Joao Morgado Architecture Photography.

The sacred building, costing 3 million euros, was ordered by the diocese of Rennes to better meet current needs. Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, a commune in the Northwestern part of France, has a thriving Catholic community and the new church is more centrally located to where people live, near the residential area south of Rennes with five-story housing blocks.

Joao Morgado Architecture Photography.

The design by Siza, for which he provided 600 details, combines a minimalistic aesthetic with an opening onto the city. His use of light and white concrete provides a unique ceremonial space that is integrated into the urban f...

Atelier Štěpán designs “dematerialized” rotunda church in the Czech Republic

2017-08-29T15:57:00-04:00

In the heart of Sazovice in the Czech Republic, the Church of St. Wenceslas rotunda was designed by Moravian architectural practice Atelier Štěpán. Completed this year, the new church's circular form is based on the rotundas built during St. Wenceslas' time in the 10th century.

Atelier Štěpán redesigned the old rotunda into a new gothic square-shaped chapel within the Prague cathedral. “We circumscribed a circle around the square and continued to design with the same proportions and positioning of altar, entrance and stairs,” Atelier Štěpán says.

Photo: Jakub Skokan and Martin Tůma/BoysPlayNice.

The church's interior is pared down with modest decoration and soft lighting in order to create an inviting, peaceful space for meditation. It also houses relics of its patron saint. Curved pews surround an organically shaped, bronze-shell altar.

Photo: Jakub Skokan and Martin Tůma/BoysPlayNice...

Elevate your senses at the Church of Cannabis, a renovated 113-year-old Denver church

2017-06-28T15:55:00-04:00

A 113-year old church in Denver, Colorado recently reopened after a renovation [as the] new home and place of worship for the Elevation Ministries of the International Church of Cannabis (ICOC), better known as the Church of Cannabis [...] you must become a member in order to gain access at other times and enjoy the complete experience. Nevertheless, member or not, visiting the church in sober condition is quite the adventure.

Painted with mythological creatures in a hallucinating rainbow of colors, the International Church of Cannabis is a non-profit religious group whose beliefs are founded on “Elevationism”, which welcomes “adults everywhere who are looking to create the best version of themselves by way of the sacred plant” — at least from Thursday-Sunday from 1-3 p.m. during public access.Elevationism”, which welcomes “adults everywhere who are looking to create the best version of themselves by way of the sacred plant” — at least from Thursday-Sunday from 1-3 p.m. during public access.

BNIM restores Kansas City's century-old Westport Presbyterian Church

2017-06-06T20:11:00-04:00

Completed in 1905 in one of Kansas City, Missouri's oldest neighborhoods, the Westport Presbyterian Church was in dire need of repair after suffering from a catastrophic fire in 2011. Undertaking all the technical challenges that come with a project of this nature, architecture practice BNIM worked with the congregation to successfully preserve the Church's most sacred elements while creating a new, dynamic space for the community.

The church's exterior limestone shell survived the fire, while its roof structure, interior structure, and finishes were destroyed. Following an analysis of the existing 27,000 square-foot building, BNIM restored the most significant elements in the original structure: the sanctuary, chapel, second floor, and basement. On the other hand, a second building first grafted to the church's east side in 1916 had to be fully reconstructed. BNIM also redesigned the storefront facing Westport Road to be more welcoming and easily accessible....

New Zealand landscaper shapes church out of trees

2015-07-13T14:19:00-04:00

You don’t have to be religious to appreciate the Tree Church in Ohaupo, New Zealand. A heavenly 100-seat chapel set among a 3-acre landscaped garden, the church boasts walls made of living trees planted around an iron frame. In 2011, Barry Cox, who runs a tree relocating business, decided that his backyard was missing an old stone church like the ones he had studied and admired on travels to Europe.

Get a glimpse inside the Tree Church in the video below.

And here's more tree love and cool churches on Archinect:

Tree-hugging in the modern age

It's official: trees are good for your health

New photos of E. Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel unveiled to mark 35th anniversary

Great Synagogue of Edirne in Turkey, Europe's third largest synagogue, reopens after five-year restoration

Tour the stunning "The Fish Church" in Stamford as part of the Docomomo US Tour Day