Around 100 years after the foundation stone of St. Elisabeth Church was laid, the inauguration of the associated parish community centre takes place—named after Pope John XXIII, Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli, who, despite his old age, began to break new ground and courageously renew the Catholic Church. The name Roncalli seems a perfect match for the new “house in the middle of the world”, as Dean Ulrich Kloos calls it, because it stands for dynamism, awakening and a way of thinking that was far ahead of its time in many areas.
An overall solution for the community centre, the kindergarten and the parish office was to be found, which could only be accomplished with a new building. This was accompanied by the reduction of areas and volumes and the demolition of the very outdated kindergarten and the previous community centre. The new design of the church area—comprising the parish hall, sacristy, parish office, function rooms and kindergarten—aimed at revitalising and integrating the entire urban district. On the part of the site that was sold, the Siedlungswerk built a multi-storey apartment building with rental and owner-occupied flats for people from all segments of society. Generously designed open spaces complement the overall ensemble. In this context, the remodelling and redesign of the church forecourt was also of great importance.
