St Florian’s Church

Abstract

Bounded by a rocky ridge to the north and a country road to the south, the church stands in the middle of Aigen. The building is part of a constellation that includes the old village square and a new church square, with a stream separating the two. Three steel and timber gangways connect the two spaces. Built on a polygonal floor plan that deliberately avoids any obvious axiality or symmetry but nevertheless has a clear front and back, the building opens more towards the south and west and is more closed to the north and east. The earth and grass green roof lies like a tortoise shell over the building. Its supporting trusses and shell rest on walls on the north and east sides, on columns to the south and west. A projecting white steel plate rim runs around the perimeter roof like the edging of a plate. Arriving from the west side, one enters a structure that appears to glow with a brownish, sometimes reddish colour. The architectural space is that of a compressed and distorted hexagon and it is enclosed by seven walls: three walls to the south, one glazed wall on the west side, two to the north and a concrete wall on the east side.