Brick church by Koht Arkitekter balances architectural ambition and material modesty

Blocky volumes clad in sand-toned bricks define the Sædalen Kirke church, designed by local practice Koht Arkitekter for a young congregation in Bergen, Norway.

Named Sædalen Kirke after the neighbourhood in which it is located, the 1,200-square-metre church sits on a low hill adjacent to a wooded meadow.

Koht Arkiteker designed a building that is unified externally but divisible internally via a folding partition wall that separates a double-height hall from community and activity spaces, responding to the church's role as both a religious and community gathering space.

"The brief asked for a modern church adapted to a young, growing congregation, but one that also builds on tradition and the particular identity of Sædalen as a place," studio partner Anders Olivarius Bjørneseth told Dezeen.

"This is arguably the central challenge facing church architecture today – how to design a building that holds the gravity of the sacred while genuinely serving the rhythms of contemporary community life," he added.

"We read it as a challenge of balance: between the sacred and the everyday, between architectural ambition and material modesty, between the building as a landmark and the building as a good neighbour."

Two axes forming a crucifix organise the plan. The first, running from northwest to southeast, forms a "processional route" from the stepped entrance plaza, through the community space called the "church square" and into the light-filled double-height hall.

The second perpendicular axis allows these spaces to be divided, with separate entrances when required, using a folding wooden partition wall at the ground-floor level and a curtain above, where the first floor can overlook the main hall from a balcony.

For larger events, the two spaces can be combined to almost double the capacity of the church hall.

"The church square is the heart of the building, furnished for varied settings to accommodate everything from post-service coffee to independent community use," Bjørneseth said.

"Beyond the folding wall, the nave is oriented towards the altar, with daylight entering from multiple sources – skylights, a side window along the east-west axis and a large, high-placed side window – creating a layered, atmospheric quality of light," he added.

Along its southwestern facade, the church is buffered from the road by a service zone, which includes a kitchen and cloakroom for the community area and sacristy spaces.

This arrangement allows the opposite facade to open up towards the neighbouring wood and stream with large windows, as well as an outdoor seating terrace that connects to the entrance plaza.

Pale sand-toned brickwork was used both externally and internally to create a "cohesive whole" for the building, which is varied by the introduction of small perforated sections in the hall.

In the double-height church hall, this brickwork forms a lower datum, while the upper sections have been finished in pale plasterwork beneath timber ceilings.

"Brick in a sand-bleached tone was chosen early in the process as the primary material, motivated by a desire for permanence, weight and tactile richness appropriate to a church on a hilltop," explained Bjørneseth.

Other churches recently featured on Dezeen include Tiny Church Tolvkanten in Copenhagen by Julius Nielsen, designed as a 12-sided form symbolising the twelve apostles and cloaked in black timber planks, and Højvangen Church in Skanderborg by Henning Larsen, which aims to balance the community and spiritual needs of a contemporary church.

The photography is by Thurston Empson.

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