Visions and Concepts for St. Johannes in Merkstein

As a result of the parish fusions in the diocese of Aachen, not all church buildings can be maintained permanently by the parishes in future. This also affects the St. Johannes church in Merkstein - built in 1961-62 by the architect Emil Steffann - for which concepts for further use, partial use or conversion were to be developed within the framework of the M2 project.

The two-semester project was divided into three phases: At the beginning there was the scientific documentation of the church building, which was important in terms of architectural history. A building survey and the evaluation of archival documents, including those in the archive of the DAM in Frankfurt, formed the basis for the subsequent development of individual utilization concepts. Finally, the second semester was dedicated to the detailed elaboration of the designs.

The intensive scientific study of the object at the beginning had the aim of internalizing the characteristic features of the church building in such a way that they can still be experienced after the transformation.

The design project was accompanied in its various phases by the architect Elmar Paul Sommer, the liturgical scientist Prof. Dr. Albert Gerhards, the Italian architect and expert on the work of Emil Steffann Dr. Tino Grisi and the diocesan architects Noemi Richarz and Bernhard Stenmans.