Haus am Dom, Worms (DE)

As an exempted volume placed on the existing ground floor, the new building of the parish hall respectfully responds to the scale of its surroundings – present and sublime to the public cathedral square, discreet and reserved to the cloister. The concise roof silhouette blends subtly into the existing building structure without contracting. The adapted staircase along the Nikolauskapelle will clean up the access situation with a free space connection of the cathedral square and the cloister.
The new building consists of three floors: basement, ground floor and attic. In the basement there is a café and cathedral shop with direct access to the cathedral square. The auxiliary rooms (WCs, storage facilities, etc.) required for the new building are concentrated in the rear area. On the ground floor – directly accessed via the cloister – is the foyer with variable group rooms. A separate kitchen area offers catering facilities for larger events. In addition, it offers sufficient space for the representative sculpture collection. The attic houses the new community hall. Borrowed from the analogy of an abstracted cross-ribbed vault, it is spatially staged via a central skylight strip and thus forms the crowning, sacral-looking finale to the new building. In material terms, the new building responds cautiously to the historical environment. The façade and roof are clad with dark red, sandblasted glass fibre concrete panels and form a modern reminiscence of the red porphyry of Worms Cathedral. Warm materials dominate the interior: wooden windows and doors, wooden pillars and floors made of white fir.

Client: Bischöfliches Ordinariat
Architecture: Dietrich | Untertrifaller
Competiton: 2013, Recognition
Area: 430 m²