Yohan Zerdoun + Kister Scheithauer Gross Architekten, Cologne, Harmony | A Double Church, A Synagogue. Installation view at Palazzo Mora, 2016.

Harmony
A Double Church, A Synagogue
Two images reflect the fruits of collaboration between the architect and the photographer. The former draws and shapes the space to meet the needs of man. The latter creates a composition of fullness and emptiness, which captures the moment and lasts through time.
This coexistence is highlighted by a Double Church and a Synagogue. A perpetual and singular harmony is orchestrated by the play of light and the passing silhouettes.
The double church accommodates both a Catholic and a Protestant church behind a shared envelope built of concrete. The two sacred spaces are autonomous yet can be combined. For that to happen, walls weighing tons are pushed apart between both churches.
Thus turned into a unity, the ecumenical church interior becomes an architectural synthesis. The solid concrete walls form a contrast to the building contour, which is reminiscent of a lightweight, stretched tent.
The synagogue suddenly rises in the urban space; there is no architectural edge surrounding it. Just as smooth as the exterior appearance, so also is the interior differentiated, which contains a complete community centre.
Only the window of the sacred room signifies that this building is a synagogue: the large corner window faces Jerusalem. More than five hundred individual windows using the Star of David as a motif are worked into the natural stone facade.