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The Mater Dolorosa church in Langenau, a small town near Ulm, was
recently revamped using a design by the Elmar Weber practice.
Built in 1967, the building already has a modern feel, with towering,
asymmetrical lines and sharp angles. The building rises towards heaven,
using combinations of sharp corners, soaring inclinations and unusual
placements.
The work required was both internal and external, structural and
aesthetic, such that when the old roof covering was removed, it created
an opportunity to give the church an attractive, elegant makeover.
The steeply pitched original roof, extending for over 2,000 sq m was
replaced, removing the old fiber cement slabs and installing PREFA
aluminum shingles (420x240 mm), in anthracite grey, using 10 PREFA clips
per square meter to fix them to the supporting frame. The result was a
merger of performance and aesthetics, providing a solution that could
resist the elements but exalt the shapes in a visual merger of angular
surfaces.
Finally, the use of technology to absorb FD.TEC frequencies ensures the
cladding improves the acoustics, removing unwanted frequencies and
making the bell, housed in the wooden bell-tower, lose its reverberating
sound and call the faithful to mass with a clear, albeit distant, reminder.
MATER DOLOROSA CHURCH
SHAPE AND PERFORMANCE Langenau, Germany ELMAR WEBER
