Resurrection Chapel

Total usable area: approx. 50m²
Start of planning: 2017
Completion: August 2020
Construction time: 24 months

Recognition of public buildings, Upper Austria Timber Construction Prize 2022
Nomination, Daidalos Upper Austria 2022
Award, ZV Builder Prize 2021
Award, best architects 22

The Resurrection Chapel, located in the extension of an old gravel pit, defines a new meeting place for Straß due to its location. A concrete bracket facing the slope forms the striking end of the local topography and defines the address of the chapel. Via a casually designed forecourt you are led through a covered entrance into the anteroom, from where you are redirected at the end and led backwards into the open chapel room that is still at the top.
Through its reduction to construction and materiality, this creates an atmosphere that ignores everyday life and thus invites you to pause. Towards the top, the space-forming walls dissolve into their construction and, in combination with the vertical facade structure, the horizontal slats in the interior and the incidence of light, create a sacred atmosphere and unmistakable identity.
The possible uses of the Resurrection Chapel include, on the one hand, non-denominational purposes such as devotions, church services or celebrations and, on the other hand, cultural events.

“The purpose of a chapel seems simple, but its design interpretation is diverse. From the classic design language to the architectural avant-garde, people try to break out of the standardized everyday life and ask questions. Questions that cannot only be answered by the location and function alone, but rather by an individual examination of the idea of ​​a “higher order”.
The Chapel of the Resurrection is my answer to an approach about architecture. Architecture in an unvarnished way, honest and modest in construction and materiality, self-confident in expression and unmistakable in its identity.” (Arch. Tom Lechner)