Walter Rieger (architect)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dreikönigen Church, Zurich-Enge (1949–1951)
Maria Frieden Church, Dübendorf (1950–1952)
St. Konrad Church, Zurich-Albisrieden (1953–1955)
St. Gallus Church, Zurich-Schwamendingen (1956–1957)
Sainte Famille Church, Zurich-Hottingen (1966)
Church of St. Peter and Paul with the new St. Anna chapel in the foreground, Zurich-Aussersihl (1979–1981)

Walter Rieger (* 1915 ; † 1990 ) was a Swiss architect. With his church buildings he helped shape modern Catholic church architecture.

life and work

Walter Rieger completed an apprenticeship as a draftsman with Anton Higi and then worked in his architectural office. When Anton Higi was elected to the Zurich City Council in 1938, Walter Rieger took over the construction management of the St. Martin Zurich-Fluntern Church, which was under construction . During this time, Rieger also began studying architecture at the Technical University of Stuttgart , which he then had to break off at the beginning of the Second World War .

Together with Ferdinand Pfammatter , Walter Rieger won second prize in the architecture competition for the Catholic Church of St. Felix and Regula in Zurich-Hard in 1946 . The construction of the Catholic boys' school in Sumatra in Zurich made it possible for Pfammatter and Rieger to set up a joint architecture office, which they operated from 1948 to 1967. In the period from 1948 to 1967, Rieger and Pfammatter created a total of 11 churches, 11 school houses, a kindergarten and 9 commercial buildings in addition to numerous renovations, conversions and extensions.

After the separation from Ferdinand Pfammatter and the dissolution of the joint architecture office, Walter Rieger realized his most important single church building project in the years 1979–1981 by renovating St. Peter and Paul , Zurich-Aussersihl. It is the first Catholic church in the city of Zurich to be built on Zurich land after the Reformation and the split off from the Christian Catholic Church . Through this renovation and the new construction of the St. Anna Chapel, which is stylistically adapted to the neo-Gothic church, Walter Rieger made a significant contribution to the harmonious overall appearance of the mother parish of all the churches in Zurich.

Appreciation

The architects Pfammatter and Rieger stood in the tradition of French concrete architecture. About their buildings it is said: "The work brings back memories of the French brothers Auguste and Gustave Perret , who were considered pioneers of concrete architecture in the twenties."

In the 1930s, the liturgy movement of the Catholic Church raised the demand for a spatial union of priests and believers. This requirement had an influence on the development of the church buildings by the architects Pfammatter and Rieger. The first two church buildings by the architects Dreikönigen Zürich-Enge and Maria Frieden Dübendorf , for example , still show a clear design as traditional multi-aisle longitudinal buildings . In the case of the Dreikönigen church, the influence of Denis Honegger's chapel at the Misericorde University in Friborg can still be clearly seen. At the Maria Frieden church, however, Pfammatter and Rieger are already moving away from the three-aisled hall by spanning the space with parabolic concrete girders. Even St. Konrad Zurich-Albisrieden established by the plan been almost a central building is standing with his cross tonnes of the aisles on the model of Notre-Dame du Raincy points. The churches of St. Gallus Zurich-Schwamendingen and St. Marien Herrliberg go even further in the direction of a unified space with a vaulted or tent-shaped shell. Finally, the last joint work by Pfammatter and Rieger, the Sainte Famille church in Zurich-Hottingen , made the transition to the transverse structure. With this, this church consistently implements the requirement of the liturgy constitution of the Second Vatican Council , in that the transverse structure enables semicircular seating so that the faithful can gather close to the altar .

Buildings (selection)

literature

  • Walter and Hansjörg Rieger: Catholic Church of St. Peter and Paul, Zurich-Aussersihl. Swiss art guide. Bern 1982
  • Obituary for Ferdinand Pfammatter, in: Architekturfachzeitschrift Tec 21 , year 2003, quoted from: Gamma: 50 Years Church of St. Gallus Zurich Schwamendingen.
  • Markus Fischer: Dreikönigskirche in Zurich-Enge. Society for Swiss Art History. Bern 2011

Web links

Commons : Walter Rieger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fabrizio Brentini. Building for the Church. Catholic church building of the 20th century in Switzerland. Edition SSL 1994, p. 294.
  2. ^ Markus Fischer: Dreikönigskirche in Zurich-Enge. P. 11
  3. ^ Fabrizio Brentini. Building for the Church. Catholic church building of the 20th century in Switzerland. Edition SSL 1994, p. 294.
  4. ^ Obituary for Ferdinand Pfammatter, in: Architekturfachzeitschrift Tec 21 , year 2003, quoted from: Gamma: 50 Years Church of St. Gallus Zurich Schwamendingen. P. 12.
  5. ^ Markus Fischer: Dreikönigskirche in Zurich-Enge. P. 22
personal data
SURNAME Rieger, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss architect
DATE OF BIRTH 1915
DATE OF DEATH 1990