CHURCH of SAINT JOHN PAUL II

Robert Gutowski Architects was founded in Budapest by Robert Gutowski in 2004. The practice has since won numerous architectural competitions, built over 50 projects and has designed critically acclaimed buildings, including a gymnasium and a concert hall in Pannonhalma, Unesco World Heritage Site, Korda Pilgrim House in Mariazell, Austria and Saint John Paul II Church in Páty, Hungary.

For Saint John Paul II Church, the entire design and construction process was carried out with the organization and involvement of the local community. The building was erected mainly with the help of donations and was consecrated in 2019.
The Church represents a conscious response to liturgical changes in recent decades, rendering it a model church experiment in contemporary church architecture. Emphasis is shifted toward the active involvement of worshipers. The community is not a passive observer of events in a sanctuary, but rather actively experiences the holy act.

In the studio’s design the nave functions as the church yard, while the liturgical space resembles the sanctuary of the Baroque church ending with the apse. The traditions of historical church architecture are expressed in a novel form: the broken angle of the yard and church interior, i.e. of the axes of the nave and the sanctuary, is a Medieval symbol, a metaphor of the broken body.

Within the church interior, the emphasis of sacral functions is provided by surfaces illuminated by spot and diffused light within the reinforced concrete cupola. The proximity of the altar, natural light directed at the centre, and an intimate atmosphere, inspire an appropriate ambiance and reflection.

The green stone block at the altar is the focal point of the space. When sanctifying the church, the relic of the blood of Pope John Paul II was placed at the bottom of the altar stone. The recess of the reliquary is closed with white carved Carrara marble, bearing the coat of arms of the Pope. The floor plan of the altar adjacent to the floor is rectangular, adapted to the panel layout of the floor, connecting to the earthly world. The contour of the stone changes and widens upward, and its corners are rounded off to allow gathering around the altar.

The liturgical space is surrounded by communal and educational rooms, an event hall, guest room, the priest’s living quarters, offices and service rooms, forming a unified whole together with the yard. The elliptical layout of the church in the small-town, heterogeneous environment symbolizes perpetuity.

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