Architects: John Pawson Architects.
Location: Augsburg, Germany.
Year: 2013.
Photographs: Gilbert McCarragher.
Since its founding almost a thousand years ago, the church of St. Moritz has undergone several changes, including disastrous fires, modifications to the liturgy, changes in aesthetic taste, and bombing during WWII. The goal of this most recent intervention was to improve the existing architecture from an aesthetic, functional, and liturgical standpoint, always keeping the project’s focus on creating a sacred environment. The subtle modification of the apse windows, which must serve architecturally as a source of light and liturgically as an expression of the threshold to transcendence, is a major gesture of the intervention. The apse will be the brightest spot in the cathedral thanks to a larger lighting scheme that attempts to achieve a clear distribution of light. The altar is moved to a newly built island in the nave, bringing the liturgy closer to the audience and allowing the placement of the three main liturgical landmarks on a single level: the altar, the ambo, and the sedilia.
