Greek Orthodox Church

Greek Orthodox Churchby Herzog & De-MeuronPlace: Zurich, Switzerland Year: 1989, competition
The impossibility of keeping tradition alive is a universal and irreversible phenomenon. The impossibility of producing new Orthodox images according to traditional rules did not just suddenly become a fact from one day to the next. Rather, a long-term process is taking place, (the process is always taking place although we only perceive it in its marked eruptive moments) one that nonetheless suddenly attains an impossible to ignore dimension that is ultimately sensed by everyone. The architects’ thoughts, which became determinative for the project for an Orthodox church, that attempts to articulate and reflect upon the icon in a specific way, emerge from this impossibility and this uneasiness. Their point of departure is a church space composed exclusively of icons whose building material and whole essence is, as it were, the icon that has travelled time and can be experienced.