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MW Architects is a Pretoria-based firm that is passionate about creating unique spaces by engaging w

We work across residential, group housing, leisure and commercial projects that redefine South African lifestyle. Taking care of all your building needs, we offer services in architectural design, project administration and compliance drawings.

23/12/2021

www.mwarchitects.co.za

16/12/2021

│ From soil we are made │ Part 6

The architecture of the chapel reaches beyond the building itself: The rye field planted and maintained by the congregation next to the church and the adjoining cemetery is a direct extension of how thoughtful Architecture is not only bound to the building itself, but can also responds to the landscape and the history and symbolism in palpable ways.

The death strip was a symbol of life being stripped from millions. The wall was supposed to stand for an eternity, but after a generation it was overcome by people. What once looked to be completely dead, was able to produce and become arable again.

The Chapel’s official website tells the story: https://gemeinde-versoehnung.de/projekte/roggenfeld/
“ What began in the spring of 1990 with the sowing of lupins in the wall strip, the reconciliation congregation later took up as part of the work of the congregation: something should grow again in the death strip. Launched in 2005 as an art campaign by the sculptor and stonemason Michael Spengler, the rye field later became part of the Berlin Wall Memorial. As an artistic expression of sowing, growing and decaying, of transience and eternity, the field found its place in the memory context of the Berlin Wall.

The field is not just nature regained. It is also a metaphor for the change in meaning of the wall strip. The violence at the border destroyed many lives. At least 140 people died at the Berlin Wall. Against this background, the biblical Our Father prayer has a special sound when it is spoken daily in many languages of the world, here in the chapel surrounded by bread grain. It says: “Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts ”. Where there is sown there is peace. Breads and wafers are baked from the harvest of the rye field. Rye grains are put into small bags. Each contains about 300 grams of grain, for a meal or for sowing. They are available at the chapel for a donation.

16/12/2021

│ From soil we are made │ Part 5

Once you step into the heart of the church all is engulfed by light – I love the way the building physically guides you past the borders of your mind – one is not able to see past the solid rammed earth wall (Our perceptions and history), only able to see the light filtering in through the porous outer wooden skin (The here and now perhaps?)

A journey to the deeper soul, often perceived as the darker side of the human condition, can indeed produce a light filled transformed experience and how well this piece of architecture managed to translate human experience into space!

The Chapel’s official websiste puts it so well into words:

“Chapel on the way. Church in life. Faith in the heart. In the walkway of our Chapel of Reconciliation, light and shadow evoke contrasts of light and dark. It is a basic message of the church at the place of remembrance of the old border: You can come out of the dark valley back into the light. Walls can be brought down. And what we achieve brilliantly also has downsides.
Reconciliation is when change is allowed: the alternation of light and shadow, plus nuances in all the colors of the rainbow, beyond black and white. The wandering congregation of Jesus of Nazareth has been on the move for centuries. The campus around the Chapel of Reconciliation invites you to make a stop, welcome!”

Indeed WELCOME!

Welcome to the deeper side of humanity – where Light engulfs all!

Photo Credits:
1) Photo by Thomas Winwood on flickr · · Reitermann and Sassenroth, 2000 Berlin DE
2) Photo taken from https://www.talkitect.com/2008/11/blog-post.html
3) Photo by Donette Werkman
4) Photo by Donette Werkman

07/12/2021

│ From soil we are made │ Part 4

The absolute magnificence of the building for me lies in the rammed earth wall composed out of clay and smaller pieces of bricks of the exploded church. One is able to see shards of glass, brick and clay as you lead your hand slowly and solemnly on the earth wall. For me, I was feeling like I touched the blood and soul of so many generations before me – connecting me with them in a very sensible and real manner – dust to dust…

From a construction point of view the rammed earth wall was wonderful collaboration between architect, engineer and artist meeting. Under the leadership of the Austrian clay artist Martin Rauch, and volunteers from fourteen eastern and western European countries, the walls were constructed layer upon layer of 30 cm of moist clay, put into position and then compressed by 8 cm, giving the wall’s structure its strength.

The walkway of the chapel is the architectural aspect that will remain with me. Now looking at the video I captured of the moment, it does not catch the light as I remembered it.

I wish I focused more on the play of light filtering in on my left contrasting to the through the dark and solid of the rammed earth on my right.

06/12/2021

│From soil we are made│ Part 3

The Chapel, seating only 100 people, is a wonderful embodiment of how architecture – through materials, form and light as architectural element, can encapsulate the stories of past atrocities and shape it into not only a physical symbol of peace and reconciliation but also an experience bringing hope for the future of humankind.

The building has a solemn and hushed tone to it yet far from sombre and dreadful – One feels like words are not necessary here. How wonderful that architecture can tell stories without words!

In 1990 the removal of the border fortifications began and left the land where the Church of Reconciliation had once stood overgrown with grass and shrubs. While the general trend was to get rid of the physical evidence of Berlin’s division, this Parish wanted their church back! Ecologically conscious and aware of its parishioner’s needs, the decision was made to build a new chapel on the site.

The new design had to take into consideration not only the past and the way the history should be commemorated, but also had to encapsulate a future vision of the parish. The result was a modern design, using age old, rammed earth construction and modern technology.

The Berlin architects Rudolf Reitermann and Peter Sassenroth were commissioned to design the chapel. Wooden columns were used for the outer oval wall, which recreates the shape of the chapel’s predecessor and the inner oval of the chapel is made from pressed clay and follows the usual east-west orientation of churches.

05/12/2021

│From soil we are made │Part 2

The chapel, completed in 2000 was constructed on the footprint of its former large neo-Gothic 1894 ancestor – a church building that ended up in the wrong spot at the wrong time - slap bang in the former death strip between East and West Berlin, becoming completely inaccessible after the Berlin Wall was built in 1961.

Lucky enough to escape most of the Second World War shrapnel, the building now became a symbol of the division of Berlin and Germany and hammered by the post war politics!

The tower of the original Reconciliation Church towered over the wall, visible from afar whilst GDR (German Democratic Republic) border troops used it as a watchtower. It also blocked the post route in the middle of the so-called “front and rear wall” and became an obstacle to the inhuman border security of the SED dictatorship.

Finally, the church was blown up in 1985 by the GDR to increase the security and order. However, this act only furthered the symbolism of the church representing the conflict in Germany at the time.

Ironically - Only four years later, the wall itself was destroyed – signalling a new dawn for Germany and Berlin and the church itself!

Photo Credits:

1) By Schlesische Dachstein- & Falzziegel-Fabriken, vorm. G. Sturm (Freiwaldau Schlesien) - http://dachziegelarchiv.de/seite.php?kat_typ=10&max=1&sei_id=3245, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8058549

2) By unbekannt (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) - von der Gedenkstätte an der Bernauer Straße (von einer Infotafel abfotographiert), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14869390

3) By Olga Bandelowa, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3223257

04/12/2021

│From soil we are made│ - A story on how earth and architect met to bring reconciliation PART 1

As we approach on 5 December 2021, my thoughts travelled back to my visit of the on Bernauer Street in Berlin in July 2015.

World Soil Day (WSD) is held annually on 5 December to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and to advocate for the management of resources.

In the next few days, come and dig through some soil with me as I reflect on my visit to this unique architectural piece and how earth and meet to bring to .

Thinking soil, I’m always reminded of God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:19 -
"By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread
Until you return to the ground,
For from it you were taken.
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return"

For me, the Chapel of Reconciliation tells the Gen 3 story in a wonderful modern way. Embedded in modern European World War 2 history, the chapel tells of uprising, war, and years of conflict. Man fighting man over power and difference, but also tells the story of how we can reconcile and build positive futures from the exact rubble that once was the only remnants of a war.

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389 Victoria Street, Waterkloof

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