The New Apostolic Church Winterthur was built in the 1950s in the villa quarter Eichgut, in the immediate nearness of the main railway station.

A servitude on the property prevents a densification in the form of a residential and church use and forces the preservation of volume and footprint. Nevertheless, the simple functional building should represent itself more confidently in the cityscape in the future and correspond spatially as well as functionally to today's uses.

For this purpose, it was decided to leave the church hall as it is and to replace the annex buildings with a single-story wooden structure. A uniform metallic exterior skin envelops and connects the old and new buildings.

The dense green belt opens up to the street and, together with the buildings, encloses the forecourt, where a wide, low-standing canopy provides access to the foyer. Consequently, the appealing basic features of the situation and layout are preserved.

The new extension has the form of two counter-shifted monopitch roofs, at the ends of which the large multi-purpose hall and the classrooms are set. The interior is characterized by a wooden truss construction. Daylight falls into the elongated foyer between the generously dimensioned central columns.

The room program of the church is expanded with a gallery and an additional parent-child room. The church hall, kept in plain white, develops a contemplative sacred atmosphere with the skylight above the sanctuary.

Photographs: Roger Frei, Zürich