St Mary’s Church
Essen
St Mary’s Church
Essen
St Mary’s Church
Essen
St Mary’s Church
Essen

St Mary’s Church
in Essen

The listed St Mary’s Church was closed and deconsecrated back in 2008. It was then used as a warehouse and clothing store for the needy. Long-term use of the church is now to be made possible by converting it into a residential building. With the help of a wooden construction inside the church, twelve owner-occupied flats with 50 to 150 m² of living space are being created, spread over three levels.

St Mary’s Church
at a glance

Fan-like beam structure
in St Mary’s Church

Inside the church, a third row of glulam columns was added to the two existing rows of columns. The columns were connected by glulam beams.
A fan-shaped beam structure was created in the semi-circular choir room. The columns and beams were anchored using various connecting elements embedded in concrete in the existing structure.
Building project St Mary’s Church, Essen-Steele
Construction BSH column construction with X-LAM ceilings
Year of construction stock 1924/25
Conversion 2020-2022
Building costs 3.9 Mio. € (DIN 276 cost group 300 + 400)
Usable area 1,450 m2
Volume of the wooden components 2,100 m³
Stored CO2 in the construction 1,593.90 tCO2
Avoided CO2 in the construction 1,912.68 tCO2
Building owner Lambert Schlun GmbH & Co. KG, Essen, www.schlun.de
Architecture of the stock City Planning Commissioner Wilhelm Stark
Architecture of the conversion Architectural office Dr. Ing. Hermann Klapheck – Office for Architecture and Urban Planning, Recklinghausen, www.dr-klapheck.de
Structural engineering LWS Ingenieurgesellschaft für Tragwerksplanung mbH, Duisburg, www.lwsing.de
Fire protection IfBW Ingenieurbüro für Brandschutz Wuppertal GmbH, Wuppertal, www.ifbw-gmbh.com
Factory planning, production and assembly of the timber construction DERIX-Group

Prizes & Awards
for the St Mary’s Church

Association of German Architects

Essen 2023 Architecture Prize

 

St Mary’s Church was awarded the Essen 2023 Architecture Prize in the “Conversion and Repurposing” category. The jury emphasised the conversion of a formerly significant church building enabled it to be excellently placed in a new context and used in a new way.

The advantages of wood
in St Mary’s Church

Since the roof could not be opened for reasons of monument protection, all components as well as the necessary construction equipment could only enter the building through windows and doorways. In addition, due to the extremely cramped conditions, it had to be ensured that the building could be assembled inside. The construction had to be precisely adapted to the existing structure and anchored there.
The low weight of the wooden components as well as the precise and flexible adjustment possibilities facilitated these challenges enormously.

Downloads
for reference

Mikado: timber construction in listed church

September 2022 • Marc Wilhelm Lennartz

Download (German article)

Further
topics

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