The community centre was built in consistent and sustainable architecture using rammed earth, which was processed together with the parishioners. The aim of the design was to give appropriate expression to church community life in commitment to its tradition and the new social challenges through the architecture. This includes offering an appropriate balance of sacred and profane spaces, but also an architecture that expresses itself in the choice of materials (rammed earth, exposed brickwork) and workmanship, among other things. The church building consists of the worship room built in rammed earth, the room of silence constructed in exposed concrete, the central street of encounter (foyer), an inner courtyard and the group wing. The spatial composition is summarised into a cubic unit by the exposed brickwork. The exterior is characterised by the preserved oak trees. The rammed earth of the worship space is a central design element, both aesthetically and metaphorically, and documents the aspect of sustainability in a special way.

Location   Karlsruhe, Ohiostrasse
Building owner   Evangelical Free Church (Baptist), Karlsruhe
Completion   2012
Construction method   Rammed earth construction, exposed brickwork, exposed concrete
Miscellaneous   Award for Exemplary Building 2013 from the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects

On 1 April 2014, Prof. Andreas Löffler and Matthias Schmeling left the office P.I.A-Architekten, founded in 1994 by the former partners Andreas Löffler and Rainer Schneider, Gerhard Leicht and Matthias Schmeling, and founded the architectural office Löffler-Schmeling.

This project is part of the joint office history of P.I.A.