Kapelle Waldgeist “Spirit of the Forest Chapel”, Lake Starnberg

This small wayside chapel is a space for community and contemplation immersed in the natural surroundings of Lake Starnberg. Light and material are the defining elements of the architecture, creating a structure that appears at once solid and translucent in the eye of the beholder, and that embodies the myth of the Spirit of the Forest through design. In a reinvention of the local building vernacular, the chapel starts with the traditional roofline of a Bavarian chapel and transforms it into something new and very unconventional for its setting.

Viewers may perceive the chapel façade as open or closed depending on their vantage point. The building appears to be a massive solid structure when viewed from the front, with a more ethereal aspect from the side, where a series of wooden frames are evenly spaced along the exterior. Glass shingles are used as cladding, allowing light to penetrate through the wooden slats and bathe the interior in a spiritual glow; the boundary between inside and out dissolves in the transparent façade. With a slight slope in the floor towards the center of the chapel, the altar dominates the space both visually and physically. The tall brass door can be fully extended, opening on an offset pivot point that provides a clearly defined entrance for the clergy on the left and the congregation on the right.