Abbey Church and Priory

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The plan of the Premonstratensian church and priory was designed to be submitted to a design contest with a restricted procedure. The task was very interesting. The clients asked for a church plan which contained all the traditional architectural elements – traditionally arranged: a central nave, aisles, a transept, Eastern apses and a Western pair of towers. They requested a cloister ambulatory with an inner court for the priory. We were given a detailed ground plan, and the Canons wished to have a modern contemporary building based on this plan.

Therefore, the presented concept kept the traditional ground plan arrangement carefully considered by the Canons Regular, wherever it was possible. Accordingly, the parish house and the priory stand on the two sides of the church building – expressing a duality lying in the solitary, yet socially very active characteristics of the order. This duality is communicated via the two towers, which serve as staircases as well as look-outs. The towers make the building visible from a long distance. The horizontal mass provides balance for the verticality of the towers, the on-running white glass facade encompasses all the social functions. On the middle level of the monastery, the guest rooms and the rooms of the novices look over an inner court, the rooms of the Canons Regular are situated on the upper level.