St. Helena Parish sought to create a new parish centre with administrative offices and a flexible community hall for choir rehearsals and events in the heart of Rheindahlen, a district of Mönchengladbach. The generous plot size opened up possibilities for additional programme elements within the building. This led schrötgens architekten to design a multifunctional structure that combines these functions with residential units on the upper floors—a scheme that sits harmoniously within the existing urban fabric.

As a neighbour to the church, the new building had to negotiate a complex urban condition: it needed to define a spatial edge along St Helena's Square, which fronts the western aisle, while simultaneously closing a narrow street that runs perpendicular to the church. The architects achieved this through a clever roof strategy—an eaves roof that rotates 90 degrees into a steep gabled form. This pointed gable becomes a distinctive landmark while echoing the adjacent nave's profile. The three-storey gabled block gives way to a single-storey community hall with integrated kitchen and serving counter, which now frames the church path with new spatial clarity. Oversized square windows—twice the size of the building's otherwise vertical fenestration—grant the hall prominent visibility and public presence. Entry sequences are carefully orchestrated: the boldly angled corner entrance serves the offices, while the community hall's public access connects directly to the church-side pathway. Residential units are accessed via a separate stairwell positioned toward the square. The material palette thoughtfully references the site's layered history. During basement excavation, archaeologists uncovered 13th- and 14th-century masonry remains and a castle moat—physical traces now embedded in the building's narrative. The new yellow clinker brickwork directly echoes the Romanesque church tower's pale stone, which was integrated into the red-brick neo-Gothic church during post-1900 reconstruction. Together with the neighbouring red-brick house also facing the square, this material dialogue—materials and colours in counterpoint—recreates at intimate scale what has already proven successful at the urban scale.

www.schroetgens-architekten.de

Photography Credits:

Constantin Meyer
www.constantin-meyer.de

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 04|23)