Koschany + Zimmer Architekten KZA took first place in the competition to redesign the Christuskirche in Gladbeck. The design for a new community center within the existing building prevailed against five other submissions.

The sponsor of the competition was the Evangelical Lutheran Church Gladbeck. Their aim is to make the church the central Protestant location in the city. In the future, the building is meant to provide sufficient space for all activities of the community and adapt to the members’ changing needs. The architects‘ task was therefore to develop solutions for the conversion, without neglecting the historical building fabric.

The concept submitted by the KZA team takes up these requirements: It strengthens the existing building structure and establishes the new community center as a meeting place of openness and tolerance. Flexible room boundaries allow multifunctional use. For this purpose, the sacred space of the Christuskirche is first redefined in a reduced size and set as a „room in the room“ into the existing building.

The side walls are designed as opaque sliding elements. They can be opened at the bottom and „parked“ on both sides of the organ loft. The materiality dissolves upward and forms a translucent skin, on which the sidelight guidance of the church stock is reflected.

The group rooms are located in the aisles of the church and moved into the galleries. Thanks to sliding glass elements, they can be connected to the entire room. For large events such as festive services, church celebrations or concerts, the original church space can be freely recorded. Acoustically, the entire sacral space is still sound space for the organ.

The draft plans to pull down the windows of the aisles to the floor. The community café can be located in the left aisle: bright rooms that offer free access to the outdoor terrace and thus symbolize openness. The youth area is housed in the existing rear extension. Here, too, the division into different areas offers a maximum of flexibility for various uses.

The jury praised the design of the KZA team especially for its „undisturbed coexistence of all activities in the parish“. In addition, from the jury’s point of view, the new church space „offers many opportunities for a differentiated use in worship services and, for example, also allows projection on the walls in the face of increasingly digital social development“. Thus it was open to new uses, „without losing his dignity“.