Chapel in the Episcopal Ordinariate Munich
- Jakob Schoof
Staff members of the episcopal ordinariate in Munich who wish to go to pray in their own chapel need only walk a few steps across the office corridor. Once there they find themselves in a very different world. Fink + Jocher designed a sacristy, prayer space and a small annex for devotion to the Virgin Mary as a tripartite sequence of white, abstract domed spaces whose size and contours are difficult to grasp at first glance. While the sacristy is indirectly lit by fluorescent lighting, a large, curved, suspended ceiling sail provides the prayer space with daylight and artificial light. During the day it reflects the light that enters through the windows. When natural light alone is insufficient high voltage halogen floodlights shine against the suspended ceiling from the upper edge of the curved walls. The plain matt white-painted wooden pews and the altar made of Carrara marble, a work by artist Susanne Wagner, are seamlessly integrated in the colour scheme. Even the two entrance doors to the space are clad on the inside face with white-coated metal sheeting. Externally there is nothing that might prepare one for the spatial experience offered by the chapel. The Alte Akademie in Munich's inner city is a plain post-war building with a timeless facade based on conventional rectangular fenestration. The northern part of the building used to house the Bayerische Landesbodenkreditanstalt, which provides loans for construction projects on behalf of the state. From 2010 onwards the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising had this wing of the building converted into a new administration headquarters by Fink +Jocher. While part of the ground floor is open to visitors the upper floors are occupied mostly by staff offices. The chapel terminates a sequence of two-storey spaces, staggered in relation to each other in a kind of split-level arrangement, which extends from the entrance at the corner of the building and continues past the main staircase to the prayer space. To build it a floor slab in the building was removed.
