Status Quo

The site is part of the last undeveloped corner of Plauen's old market square and is therefore of immanent importance for the further urban development of the historic city center.
The author of the design is of the opinion, that the response to the client's brief cannot only consider the existing 'gap', but that the entire city block should be planned instead with regards to its urban development potential.

Concept 

The historical fragmentation of the city block adjacent to Plauen's main church Johanneskirche was reshaped in the Wilhelminian period, including the existing vicarage and setting the scale for future developments.  Despite its opulence the vicarage appears 'unfinished' as a one-sided corner building with the orphaned fire gable.
Instead of closing the gap, the proposed design aims to work out the legibility and affiliation of the context to different times. The proposal creates a solitary extension with the same cross-section abutting the vicarage on one side and resulting in another corner situation at the other end. The archetypal main building with main portal and main entrance impacts significantly on the urban development, while a smaller two-storey rear building is set back from the main façade. 
The proposed main portal on Kirchstrasse is placed on the axis of the T-junction in front of the site, and thus forming a counterpart to the side entrance of Johanneskirche which is aligned with the axis of its corresponding T-junction. 
A small for forecourt is created on the gable end by moving away from the neglected corner development along the opposing site boundary. Towards the rear the forecourt is contained by the two-storey building housing the social station.  As a result a defined courtyard situation is created within the site by the alternating arrangement of the main building along the street and the secondary two-storey building along the rear boundary.

Result 

An archetypal building constructed with few, simple and traditional materials. 
The World Council of Churches put the concept of sustainability on the international political agenda for the first time in 1975 with the call for a “sustainable and responsible society”, when climate change was not yet the focus of society."