Riku Ikegaya Constructs a Series of Nested Spaces in a Berlin Church Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Berlin is city in which the past and the present often collide – a phenomenon particularly acute when it comes to the built environment. In this project by Japanese architect and artist Riku Ikegaya, the interior of St. Elisabeth-Kirche (Church of St. Elizabeth)—designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel—is transformed by means of a structural installation. Consisting of a scale model of Schinkel’s plans for the Rosentaler Vorstadt Church, the artist has composed a “three-dimensional architectural sketch.”

This “church in a church” evokes not only the original function of the sacral building as a place of assembly and prayer, but also chronicles historical, cultural, and social change. The original building, heavily damaged during the Second World War, carries traces of the process of destruction, decay, and reconstruction. The temporary, provisional character of the pavilion implies the “unfinished”, and the cycle of coming into being and fading away.