Julius Nielsen completes tiny 12-sided church in Copenhagen
Danish architect Julius Nielsen has created a small timber church in Copenhagen, which features a 12-sided hall symbolising the 12 apostles.
Located in Copenhagen's North Harbour district, the 75-square-metre building is named Tiny Church Tolvkanten after the Danish word for a dodecagon, or a 12-sided polygon.
To emphasise this unusual geometry, Nielsen designed the church to have an austere but warm feel, eschewing ornamentation to instead focus on its timber structure and finishes, which were created in collaboration with flooring manufacturer Dinesen.
"The 12-sided geometry is both pragmatic and symbolic: referencing the 12 apostles while establishing a non-hierarchical order that gathers the community around a shared centre," Nielsen told Dezeen.
"The design shifts focus from the use of religious iconography to emphasis on atmosphere, testing whether architecture – carefully considered and distilled to light, geometry, and material – is enough to sustain the gravity of ritual."
Beneath an oculus skylight, Tiny Church Tolvkanten's 12-sided hall is framed by slender spruce columns, with its lower level cloaked in wool and cotton drapes and the upper ceilings and roof finished in lime-washed spruce boards.
Below, the hall's floor is made from surplus Douglas fir planks from Dinesen, with varying widths and lengths used to optimise material use and laid in a radial web or "cake-slice" pattern.
Pared-back metal sconces are attached to each column, while exposed bulb lights hang from the ceiling above, emphasising what Nielsen describes as a "spartan ethos".
Surrounding Tiny Church Tolvkanten's central hall is a 12-sided veranda framed by timber columns, which serves the purpose of a narthex – the entrance porch of a traditional church building.
This outer ring of the church was also used to discreetly house a kitchenette, storage, washroom and service areas, allowing the central hall to be as open and uncluttered as possible.
In contrast to the warm, lighter tones of the interior, the exterior of Tiny Church Tolvkanten has been finished with spruce boards with a matte-black finish.
"The surrounding colonnade transforms the act of arrival into something heightened," said Nielsen.
"More than a doorway, it offers a spatial depth that allows the mind to shift from the everyday outside toward the focused atmosphere within," Nielsen continued.
Elsewhere in Denmark, architecture studio Henning Larsen recently completed the Højvangen Church in Skanderborg, using pale brickwork, exposed timber and gridded screens that filter daylight.
Other churches recently featured on Dezeen include a fluted-concrete building by Studio Bright in Australia and an "open and free" cube in Sweden by Elding Oscarson.
The photography is by Hampus Berndtson unless otherwise stated.
The post Julius Nielsen completes tiny 12-sided church in Copenhagen appeared first on Dezeen.
