Ein neuer Typus Kirche ­ Hybride öffentliche Räume

While church­es once formed the phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al cen­ter of vil­lage and town life, steadi­ly declin­ing mem­ber­ship num­bers mean that they are increas­ing­ly becom­ing emp­ty or even clos­ing. How can church build­ings be brought back to life? Since 2016, under the aus­pices of the Evan­gel­i­cal Church in Cen­tral Ger­many and the IBA Thuringia, com­mit­ted peo­ple have joined forces in Thuringia to repo­si­tion their church­es as places of com­mu­ni­ty through orig­i­nal, sol­i­dar­i­ty-based, and con­tem­po­rary projects.

The sec­ond vol­ume presents these ambi­tious projects, recount­ing their progress, suc­cess­es, and chal­lenges. Whether it’s the Her®berg Church on the Rennsteig Trail or the Bee Gar­den Church in Rold­isleben: The projects pre­sent­ed demon­strate how prac­ti­cal, sec­u­lar uses can com­ple­ment the church’s orig­i­nal offer­ings. A new type of church is thus emerg­ing in the heart of the vil­lage, a hybrid place and per­haps a new core.