FELDKAPELLE, arch. Peter Zumthor, Germany

The field chapel was built in the period 2005 to 2007 after plans by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Commissioned by farmer Hermann-Josef Scheidtweiler and his wife Trudel and largely constructed by them, with the help of friends, acquaintances and craftsmen on one of their fields near their town of Mechernich-Wachendorf, Germany. The chapel is consecrated to Nicholas of Flüe (Brother Klaus) the Swiss Peace saints.
The interior of the chapel room was formed out of 112 tree trunks, which were configured like a tent. In twentyfour working days, layer after layer of concrete, each of them 50 cm thick, was poured and rammed around the tentlike structure up to the height of 12 meters. In the autumn of 2006, a special smouldering fire was kept burning for three weeks inside the trunk-tent. After this time the tree trunks were dry and could easily be removed from the concrete shell. The chapel floor was covered with lead, which was melted on site in a crucible and manually ladled onto the floor. 350 hand-blown glass stopper seal the collar openings which were necessary to connect the outer with the inner timber formwork when pouring the concrete.