KREUZKIRCHE HAMBURG-BARMBEK

NEW COMMUNITY CENTER

LOCATION:HAMBURG-BARMBEK

TYPE:COMMUNITY CENTER

AREA:433 M² UFA NEW BUILDING

PLANNING:2000 – 2002

The merger of three parishes in the summer of 2003 enlarged the Alt-Barmbek parish in Hamburg to such an extent that the decline in membership recorded over the years was fully offset. Two of the three church buildings used until then were given up: the Heiligengeistkirche and the Bugenhagenkirche, which had only recently undergone an elaborate restoration. The existing building capacity of the Kreuzkirche on Wohldorfer Straße in Barmbek-Süd, however, was no longer sufficient for all church and parish activities. A new community center was to bring together the areas that had until then been housed in scattered locations and to strengthen the work of the parish. Over many months, in a workshop-like exchange of experience and consultation program, the main features of an extension were worked out with the committed church council and the building committee and set down in the form of a space and functional program.

In the course of the search and design work, other parishes in Hamburg were visited, goals for use and design were developed, and the financial scope was assessed. Over the year 2004, all the essential functional and architectural questions of fittings and furnishings were worked out through various preliminary design stages and decided together. Whether the project could be approved was clarified in 2005 through a preliminary planning permit procedure. The further planning stages were then to be determined in a competitive procedure.