Gemeindezentrum

City building

Location: Frankfurt am Main
Year: 2012
Residential units: 14
Gross floor area (GFA): 1 740 m²
Client: Evangelischer Regionalverband Frankfurt am Main
Project team: Julia Goldschmidt, Jelena Duchrow, Sandra Söhnel, Ute Streit
Address: Hafenstraße 5–7, 60327 Frankfurt am Main
Other functions: church community centre with offices
Photos: Lisa Farkas

Design sketch for the community centre, in acrylics (Stefan Forster, 2008)

For this community centre in Frankfurt’s Westhafen district, the client – the Evangelische Hoffnungsgemeinde – wanted a multifunctional building with a symbolic effect, suitable for both church services and cultural events as well as providing accommodation for the elderly. The result is a building that integrates quietly into the new urban district yet still stands out from afar as a marker. Jutta Jekel, the pastor, was keen for the community hall to be versatile in its use: “Separating out religious services from everything else – that’s not what it’s about today. One room now has to be able to cater to both.” One of these functions is not least bringing together the different social milieus found in this area at the intersection of the districts of Gutleut and Westhafen. On the north side, Gutleut, a former working-class area, is more traditional and has a higher proportion of migrants, whereas Westhafen, dominated by high-priced freehold apartments and office complexes, has a more middle-class, academic population mix. The site on which the new district of Westhafen stands used to be an inland port which was identified as a conversion site during the 1990s. It is located right by the River Main, just a kilometre south of the main station.

Built on one of the last remaining free plots, the church community centre has rooms on the ground floor and the first floor, plus 14 barrier-free apartments above. With its dark clinker-brick façade and deliberately strict cubature – motifs that were developed previously in the neighbouring project, Westgarten 01 (2005) – this seven-storey volume completes the block edge and forms a small courtyard set back from the street. The entrance to the apartments is direct from the street, spatially separated from the community centre, which is accessed from the open space at the side. Emphasised with a contoured relief pattern, the double-height base storey runs around the building from the street side to form a recessed entrance to the community centre. Here, the shape of a cross picked out in brick and the higher corner refer to the motif of the church. On the inside of the block the two-storey community hall opens onto a contemplative patio, enclosed by a 2.50-metre high clinker-brick wall. On the courtyard side, the monolithic rigour of the building volume is broken up by the generously sized openings of the community hall and the loggias above.

View from the north of the courtyard with entrance to community centre

Entrance to the community centre with relief cross

Westgarten 01

zum Projekt

Westgarten 02

zum Projekt

View of the west side of the building with loggis (viewed from “Westgarten 01” apartment block)

Entrance areas and stairs, residential section

Community hall with entrances

Magazin