© Shikai / INUCE

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压抑与重生：典型中国城市中的基督教少数民族。华祥教堂自1938年建成以来，经历了根本性的变革：从几十年的恶化到前所未有的城市增长；从对宗教的彻底压制，到基督徒人数的十倍增长。今天，它发现自己身处一个高楼大厦的迷宫中。由于需要额外的空间，教会众决定在教堂附近建造一个社区中心。

Repression and Rebirth: A Christian Minority in a Typical Chinese City. Since its construction in 1938 Huaxiang Church became witness to radical transformations: From decades of deterioration to unprecedented urban growth; from complete suppression of religion to a ten-fold growth in the number of Christians. Today, it finds itself in a maze of high-rises. In need for additional space, its congregation decided to build a community centre adjacent to the church.

Repression and Rebirth: A Christian Minority in a Typical Chinese City. Since its construction in 1938 Huaxiang Church became witness to radical transformations: From decades of deterioration to unprecedented urban growth; from complete suppression of religion to a ten-fold growth in the number of Christians. Today, it finds itself in a maze of high-rises. In need for additional space, its congregation decided to build a community centre adjacent to the church.

 © Shikai / INUCE

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为风暴之眼的教堂：冲突和矛盾的地方和简短。对该项目施加的条件非常特殊：第一，空间要求与遗产当局的高度和GFA限制相冲突。其次，该网站的孤立特征-被一组高低不一、现代和传统、东方和西方的建筑所包围-要求在与周围环境的关系上采取创新的方法。

A CHURCH FOR THE EYE OF THE STORM: Conflicts and Contradictions of Place and Brief. The conditions imposed on the project were extraordinary: Firstly, the spatial requirements conflicted with the heritage-authority’s height and GFA restrictions. Secondly, the site’s isolated character - enclosed by an uncommunicative set of buildings high and low, modern and traditional, Eastern and Western - demanded an innovative approach regarding the relationship to the surrounding.

A CHURCH FOR THE EYE OF THE STORM: Conflicts and Contradictions of Place and Brief. The conditions imposed on the project were extraordinary: Firstly, the spatial requirements conflicted with the heritage-authority’s height and GFA restrictions. Secondly, the site’s isolated character - enclosed by an uncommunicative set of buildings high and low, modern and traditional, Eastern and Western - demanded an innovative approach regarding the relationship to the surrounding.

 © Shikai / INUCE

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协调进化：重新思考传统，以体现一种改变的自我感知。我们的设计说服了客户和当局，因为它通过采取城市调解者的角色来协调这种不平衡：在一个持续的上下运动中折叠它的轮廓和调整它的垂直发展，它的体积在视觉上被缩小成碎片，允许这个七倍大的结构在比例和轮廓上与它旁边的小教堂相关联。这些碎片离历史建筑越近，它们的高度就越低，展示了它的钟楼，让人联想到一条有机生长的天际线。

HARMONIZING EVOLUTION: Rethinking Tradition to Embody a Changed Self-Perception. Our design convinced client and authorities alike, as it harmonizes such imbalances by adopting the role of urban mediator: Folding its contours and modulating its vertical development in a continuous up-and-down movement, the volume is visually scaled down into fragments, allowing this seven-times larger structure to relate in proportion and silhouette to the tiny church at its side. The fragments decrease in height the closer they are to the historic building, showcasing its bell tower and evoking the impression of an organically grown sky line.

HARMONIZING EVOLUTION: Rethinking Tradition to Embody a Changed Self-Perception. Our design convinced client and authorities alike, as it harmonizes such imbalances by adopting the role of urban mediator: Folding its contours and modulating its vertical development in a continuous up-and-down movement, the volume is visually scaled down into fragments, allowing this seven-times larger structure to relate in proportion and silhouette to the tiny church at its side. The fragments decrease in height the closer they are to the historic building, showcasing its bell tower and evoking the impression of an organically grown sky line.

 © Shikai / INUCE

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社区中心的立面对环绕着它的幕墙的光彩照人做出了反驳。它是在一个红色的花岗岩中完成的，类似于旧教堂的坍塌成光滑的鹅卵石，并应用于墙壁上，使用的是鹅卵石破折号技术，这曾经是当地建筑的典型，现在几乎完全被遗忘了。

The community centre’s façade makes a counterstatement to the gloss and shine of the curtain walls encircling it. It is finished in a red granite similar to the old church’s – tumbled down to smooth pebbles and applied to the walls using a pebble dash technique once typical for the local architecture and now almost entirely forgotten.

The community centre’s façade makes a counterstatement to the gloss and shine of the curtain walls encircling it. It is finished in a red granite similar to the old church’s – tumbled down to smooth pebbles and applied to the walls using a pebble dash technique once typical for the local architecture and now almost entirely forgotten.

 Analysis Diagram

在宗教意义上，这种无穷无尽的鹅卵石将“教会”一词的两重性转化为物质，它不仅指单个建筑本身，也指所有个体基督徒的总和。在人类层面上，它赋予了社区中心一种触觉的品质，温暖和安慰的人的手，总是激起一个微笑的成人和儿童谁触摸它。在美学上，它展示了人们在被认为过时的材料、传统技术和手工艺中所能找到的美，并证明在极端的环境中，有时谦逊是最突出的。

In a religious sense, this infinitude of pebbles translates into matter the dual nature of the word “Church”, which refers not only to the single building itself, but also to the sum of all individual Christians.On a human level, it gives the Community Centre a haptic quality, warm and comforting to the human hand and always provoking a smile on the faces of adults and children who touch it. Aesthetically, it showcases the beauty that one can find in supposedly outdated materials, traditional techniques and handcraft, and proves that in an environment of extremes, sometimes humility stands out most clearly.

In a religious sense, this infinitude of pebbles translates into matter the dual nature of the word “Church”, which refers not only to the single building itself, but also to the sum of all individual Christians.On a human level, it gives the Community Centre a haptic quality, warm and comforting to the human hand and always provoking a smile on the faces of adults and children who touch it. Aesthetically, it showcases the beauty that one can find in supposedly outdated materials, traditional techniques and handcraft, and proves that in an environment of extremes, sometimes humility stands out most clearly.

 © Shikai / INUCE

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在功能上，建筑物的组织通过提供一系列多功能空间而与客户的需求相对应。作为该战略的中心部分，屋顶的顶部区域被设想为公众可进入的露天圆形剧场，允许社区保持户外。然而，从相邻建筑中可以看出，它构成了城市比例的一个阶段，在这个阶段，社区展示了它的信仰，并与城市分享了它的欢乐。

Functionally, the organization of the building corresponds to the client’s needs by providing a range of multifunctional spaces. As a central piece of this strategy, the roof top areas are conceived as publicly accessible open-air amphitheaters allowing the community to hold outdoor. Seen from the neighbouring buildings, however, it constitutes a stage of urban proportions, upon which the community demonstrates its faith and shares its joy with the city.

Functionally, the organization of the building corresponds to the client’s needs by providing a range of multifunctional spaces. As a central piece of this strategy, the roof top areas are conceived as publicly accessible open-air amphitheaters allowing the community to hold outdoor. Seen from the neighbouring buildings, however, it constitutes a stage of urban proportions, upon which the community demonstrates its faith and shares its joy with the city.

 © Shikai / INUCE

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因此，社区中心体现了教会的自我意识和作为中国基督徒的使命的改变：从一个隐藏在隐居中的保护少数群体，到一个现在想要被人看到的社区，向世界敞开心扉，伸出援助之手，邀请他们加入。建成仅仅几个月后，社区中心就已经成为年轻人最喜爱的游玩场所，并成为当地居民和游客畅通无阻地欣赏这座城市历史街区的观景台。

The community centre therefore embodies a change in the congregation’s self-perception and in their mission as Chinese Christians: from a protective minority that hid in seclusion, to a community that now wants to be visible, open its heart to the world, reach out and invite to join. Only a few months after completion the community centre has already become a popular hang-out place for the youth and serves as viewing platform from which locals and tourists enjoy an unobstructed view onto the city’s historic district.

The community centre therefore embodies a change in the congregation’s self-perception and in their mission as Chinese Christians: from a protective minority that hid in seclusion, to a community that now wants to be visible, open its heart to the world, reach out and invite to join. Only a few months after completion the community centre has already become a popular hang-out place for the youth and serves as viewing platform from which locals and tourists enjoy an unobstructed view onto the city’s historic district.

Architects INUCE·Dirk U. Moench

Location Fuzhou, China

Lead Architect Dirk U. Moench

Design Team Joshua Cubero, Yuanquan Gao, Shenming Lü, Sisi Zeng

Area 7500.0 m2

Project Year 2015

Photographs Shikai / INUCE

Category Churches

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