Lighting Design St. Altfrid Church

Lighting concept under pedagogical & liturgical aspects

Place: Essen

The St. Altfrid Youth Center is located above the Ruhr in Essen-Kettwig. It serves as a venue, among other things, for school trips and days of religious orientation. The St. Altfrid Church from the 1950s is an integral part of the overall complex. Prior to the renovation, a usage concept was jointly developed, centered around a key question: "What serves the young people?" The goal was to create a modern church space that was not only multifunctional and approachable but also, especially, supported children and youth in finding access to the church and faith. It was meant to become architecture for people. "A church becomes a church when you use it," advised the Benedictine priest and metal designer Abraham to the project team. The church comes alive through its visitors.

Lighting concept for many possibilities & moods
The entrance area has been opened, and the uplights installed on the sides inside the room create an evening effect from the interior to the exterior as one approaches the building. The warm color temperature is inviting and cozy. Upon entering the foyer, wall-mounted uplights on the wall opposite the entrance guide the gaze and movement direction into the depth of the room. In the spirit of a “grammar of light,” the lighting of the church space has been implemented in multiple layers, which can be freely combined additively through a digital lighting control system within the KNX system. The central church space is enclosed in a U-shape by a cloistered walkway, whose side aisles feature padded wooden benches that invite lingering – as do the seating niches recessed into the back walls. A continuous, low-level LED light line traces these architectural contours with light, providing glare-free orientation in the space even with strongly dimmed lighting scenes.

The large pitched roof with wooden timber trusses defines the volume of the space. The new altar is centrally located and can be used from all sides. The lighting of the central church space is flexible, provided by spotlights on suspended track systems. The lights are arranged rhythmically, creating liveliness on the floor, while the central altar is visually emphasized as the liturgical center through targeted accent lighting. The central church space is flanked by two tree sculptures made of Corten steel, which are illuminated from bottom to top by recessed floor lights to create a striking play of light and shadow on the sculptures themselves and on the ceiling. The wooden statue of Mary by the Bonn-based artist and pastor Ralf Knoblauch, as well as the cross on the wall opposite the entrance, are also visually emphasized through targeted accent lighting, creating a strong contrast with the general lighting. The lines of sight are guided by the lighting.

The organic pattern structure applied to the windows is picked up by the lighting in the form of gobo projectors and projected across the surfaces onto the side slopes of the pitched roof.

The multidimensional light layers are complemented by RGBW LED light strips, which can illuminate the space in different color temperatures of white, or, for specific occasions such as yoga classes or meditation evenings, in colored light. Overall, the church space is flexibly usable for services, music, or seminars thanks to the multi-layered lighting. The light scenes can be intuitively accessed via a control panel or flexibly adjusted.

St. Altfrid: altfrid.de
Architectur: REIN WIECHERS Architekten I www.reinwiechers.de
Interior Design: helle freude innenarchitekten I www.hellefreude.com