Adaptive reuse of sacred buildings: Adaptive reuse of church buildings in Germany ; An analysis of challenges and opportunities

Abstract

There are about 45,000 churches in Germany, 404 of them in Berlin alone. Fewer and fewer of them are regularly used as a place of worship, as there is often a shortage of both priests and visitors. (Schäfer. 2018, 12-14) Experts predict that around 30 per cent of sacred buildings will remain empty in the long term. (Hein. 2019) From a financial point of view, maintenance is hardly affordable for the parishes, often it is simply impossible for them. For the congregations, however, it is a matter of the heart that the churches are preserved and not abandoned. (Alpha&Omega. 2020) Adaptive reuse of existing buildings has become an important part of various architects who specialize in this topic. Changing the functionality of sacred buildings is a challenge with structural and social hurdles to overcome. (Zukunft-kirchen- reaume. 2021) On the one hand, the question arises of how to succeed in giving these culturally and art-historically valuable spaces a different or new purpose. On the other hand, it must be considered to what extent the wishes and needs of the parishioners can be harmonized with the design ideas of the architects. Counteracting the threatening decay of buildings and giving them a new purpose is an important issue. (Alpha&Omega. 2020) In addition to the structural and monument preservation aspects, the social dimension of the topic of church conversion will also be analyzed. It will be examined which challenges and which opportunities the adaptive conversion of churches in Germany entails. Firstly, some already implemented projects and the realized conversion ideas will be examined. Secondly, the analysis will include the question to what extent the adaptive conversion of churches has achieved social acceptance and what problems had to be overcome in the process. Thirdly, the analysis of adaptive reuse will focus on the extent to which public and community acceptance of unconventional ideas has increased over the years. This analysis intends to give a new direction and to encourage others to find a new purpose for abandoned spaces and thus make them accessible again for parishioners and the public