St Paul’s church, a neo-gothic Methodist church built in
1876, reopened in 2022 after a transformation of the interior to house a
community centre for a Christian NGO organisation. The transformation
project establishes two new squares: an exterior square serving as a
public meeting place, and an in- terior square where the church hall
becomes a central hub around which new galleries and rooms are arranged.
The transformation allows for the addition of flexible rooms, workspaces,
and professional food service, offering great versatility to the various
parts of the church’s activities. The original church design featured a
clear separation between the church hall and smaller supporting rooms.
The redesign utilizes the spaciousness and spiritual qualities of the
church hall to create a central gathering space, transforming the nave
from an isolated room into a central hub within the building. New
building elements are carefully integrated with the exist- ing
architecture, with the newly constructed mirrored gallery levels
reflecting the symmetric window arrangement of the church hall. The
result is a new symmetrical unity, replacing the original nave with a
directionless square space.
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Ground Floor
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First Floor
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Second Floor
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Central design choices aim to avoid dramatic encounters be- tween
existing and new building parts, rooms and surfaces. Instead, the desire
has been to establish a new unity, where new and old are intertwined.
While the interior is dramatically transformed, externally, the original
design is restored as far as possible. Much of the qualities that were
gradually lost in the heavy-handed renovations of the 1900s have been
corrected after careful investigation.
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North elevation
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East
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South
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West
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From a technical point of view,
the building is reconstructed with the aim to stand for 100 years with
high demands as to energy and climate performance with an FTX
ventilation system. Integrated acoustic as well as sound and light
systems are dimensioned to house a new culture scene.
Release: Spridd AB, Stockholm
