Vehicles dominating the street, night sky full of light... Our cityscape is no longer absolute nor sublime. It lacks the space where one could be engrossed in contemplation toward redemption. Yet it is quite miraculous to watch a new church being erected and believers attend a service at the crack of dawn. The scene is a testament to the sprouts of faith growing on the soil of fetishism. Immanuel church occupies the corner of the newly-developed area in Cheong-ju. As newly-developed areas usually are, buildings are covered with garish coloured signs. Hence the church is challenged to show the presence of itself in a simple and restrained fashion. The church delineates its rectangular outline on the trapezoidal site while it contains education and maintenance facilities on its bottom and the main chapel on its superstructure. The lower mass is built with bricks whereas the upper mass is fabricated with a glass wall. At a certain part of the exterior, the bricks and glass wall encounter in a delicate manner. Finally, an emergency staircase, entrance stairs and bell towers complete the edifice. Those additional elements clarify the relationship between the building and the city. By directly connecting the street to the third-floor level chapel, entrance stairs draw the street into the building without detriment to the existing urban flow.
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