On Wednesday, April 23rd 2025 at 6:30 pm, the launch of the book Built in Stone - Romanesque churches in Sardinia, by Studio Krucker Bates and co-author Markus Stolz, will take place in room 2380.
In the winter semester of 23/24, the Chair of Urban Design and Housing investigated stone construction as a sustainable method for future living and working spaces in Regensburg, one of Germany’s oldest cities. As part of their research, the studio conducted a study excursion to Sardinia in October 2023 to examine Romanesque churches:
The character of the Romanesque churches of Sardinia is specific to the place and the circumstances of their origin and continued survival. Now encountered as solitary objects in the landscape, although some were formerly part of larger monastic settlements, these outwardly simple structures convey both fragility and endurance. Built from local stone, the facades are detailed and carved in bas relief, which was often the work of foreign craftsmen – travelling masons from North Africa, France and mainland Italy. The facades represent columns and beams, carved images that play no structural role, their detailing and relief a purposeful projection of their significance and standing in the community and place within the surrounding landscape. The plain, unadorned interiors are defined by the stone they are made from, the cool shadows of their interior the result of the mass and inertia of the material itself, their form modified to adjust to the ground on which they stand and respond to the surrounding landscape.
After surveying the nine case studies, individual groups of students were tasked with documenting the strictly ordered proportions of these ancient churches, and how their geometry is adjusted to ground and site constraints. The result of their co-ordinated efforts is this unique record of plans, sections and elevations. The drawings by the students, Simon Burko’s photographs and Markus Stolz’s critical notations aim to convey the sense of scale and the quality of being ‘made by hands’ that struck us in these buildings, their material character not just the result of an expedient approach to resources and an expression of process, but the representation of an emotive connection with nature.
When:
Wednesday, 23.04.2025, 6:30 pm
Where:
Room 2380
Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Arcisstraße 21
80333 Munich
Further information:
Link to publication