Room of Silence, Refrath
Raum der Stille, Refrath
The "Room of Silence" meditation room is part of the new cultural centre of the catholic parish St. Johann Baptist in Bergisch Gladbach-Refrath.
Following the instructions of the catholic parish to create a room for resting and retreating into within the building, the architect Thomas Duda designed a room with special architectural features. A room measuring around 5 m in height was built on a half-oval floor plan. The walls of the meditation room are built using a rammed clay technique, and the ceiling features YOSIMA clay designer plaster.
The skilled trades company Lehmbau Glück from the Black Forest realised the challenging clay construction tasks. The half-oval floor plan in conjunction with highly varying wall thicknesses and conically shaped window openings meant that the structural blueprints and design needed to fulfil extremely high standards. The relevant expert planning was performed by the Berlin-based planning office Ziegert | Roswag | Seiler Architekten Ingenieure. For the first time, a reusable formwork system developed specifically for this task by the company Glück was used. In total, 68 tonnes of Claytec rammed clay were installed in this case.
The finished room has an impressive atmosphere. Two varieties of daylight illuminate the rammed clay walls: through coloured glass window openings and through a circular skylight which allows for a view of the tip of the church steeple right next door.
Planning and design: Thomas Duda, Architect, Bergisch Gladbach
Structural design: Ziegert | Roswag | Seiler Architekten Ingenieure, Berlin
Execution: Lehmbau Glück, Lauterbach
Photos: D. Mai / Claytec, Ulrich Kühn / St. Johann Baptist Refrath
