St. Josef Parish Church


A raised square provides a welcoming approach to the church, framed by a covered walkway connecting the church and the rectory behind. This creates an ensemble while zoning the external landscape and creating a sequence of differentiated spaces.

The design concept of the church focuses on the contrast of solidity and lightness. A monolithic, limestone-coloured, jointless in-situ concrete cube almost seems to float over a matt glass cube illuminated by daylight. The effect of a seemingly immaterial luminescent, dazzle-free base is created through a sandwich construction of semi-opaque glass with transparent insulation in between. At night integrated lighting in the cavity allows the cube to quietly shimmer both inwards as well as outwards. 

St. Josef Parish Church
Holzkirchen, Bavaria
Erzbischöfliches Ordinariat Munich

Competition for the realization 2013

Parish church with chapel and rectory

Visualization: Jonas Bloch
Climate engineering: Transsolar
Structural design: IB Haushofer