House of One, Berlin, Germany

House of One

Three religions.
One house.
Four rooms.

On top of the foundations of the old Petrikirchen (St Peters churches) a sacral building connecting the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam will be created in Berlin.
A house of encounter, for people of different religions to get to know each other and exchange ideas. In the House of One, three separate prayer rooms - synagogue, church and mosque - are therefore connected by a central space of encounter - the domed hall.
The challenge for the architecture was to develop a new type of building for what had never been attempted before. In 2012, the Berlin architectural office Kuehn Malvezzi emerged as the winner of the architectural competition.
An essential characteristic of the building design is the monolithic construction method using light-colored solid bricks - a very durable and classical way of construction.
In spite of the predicted daily number of visitors, high-quality room conditions are required in terms of thermal comfort and air quality, taking advantage of the high thermal building masses. At the same time, the high demands on sound insulation and room acoustics must be considered in respect to the sacred use of the rooms. It was also important to ensure the building services engineering to be both, discreet and resource-saving.
During the planning stage, silent panel heating in the floor in combination with a practically inaudible and largely invisible displacement ventilation system was implemented in the sacred rooms. The supply air distribution systems are integrated into the floors and brick walls. The exhaust air is discharged centrally in the high points of the air spaces. If required, the supply air is conditioned by natural evaporative cooling effects.
The heat demand of the „House of One“ is covered by the district heating system of the city of Berlin, which is reasonable in terms of primary energy.