Bruder Klaus Chapel
15 december 2013
For me, it's easy to pinpoint the moment I truly knew I wanted to be an architect. I may have enrolled into architecture school initially wanting to build myself a big, flashy house, but it was an innocent weekend trip during my exchange semester that changed my aesthetic and how I approach design.
Marius had contacted us almost out of the blue that Sunday morning we were due to depart for back home as part of our weekend away in Cologne - and offered us a ride to the Bruder Klaus chapel. We watched endless cars fly by on the highway, and when we stopped, we began a small hike across the field where we could see a innate - yet bold - scupture in the distance.
Saint Nicholas of Flüe was a Swiss hermit and ascetic who is the patron saint of Switzerland, or more commonly known as Bruder Klaus in Germany. The design by architect Peter Zumthor was constructed by local farmers who wanted to honor their patron saint.
The church's hollow interior was framed by 112 tree trunks, which were wrapped and then encased in layers of rammed earth, each layer being approx 0.5m thick. When the last of the 24 layers of the rammed earth set, the wooden frame was set alight, leaving the textured internal walls charred and the building open to the elements.
To me, the chapel was simple but bold - and it just felt... right in a way. The poetics, the execution, the approach, the experience was so contradictory but so perfectly resolved: I felt constricted but free, I felt humbled yet inspired. I think in a way we're taught in design to be very over-the-top clever, to have intelligence laced into our work to the nth degree - but I believe sometimes the most resounding works of art are just the ones that flow naturally through you, and if it happens to resonate with others then that's just an added bonus.
Quick guide
Distance from Cologne: 1 hr drive
Crowd profile: Middle aged groups.
Cost: Free - there is a donation box that helps fund its maintenance.
“I am convinced that a good building must be capable of absorbing the traces of human life and taking on a specific richness... I think of the patina of age on materials, of innumerable small scratches on surfaces, of varnish that has grown dull and brittle, and of edges polished by use.”
