Mobile Pulpit for the St.John´s Church

My entry in the contest for the designing of a mobile pulpit for St.John´s Church:

- Conceptual design of my pulpit:

The austere,clear and elegant interior arrangement of St.John´s Church inspired me to only include in to my layout,as regards design,materials and colours,that which is already in this building.Thus,I reduced my work to only those components which would be naturally assimilated to the conceptual design of this church´s interior and which would neither be in opposition to nor appear as a foreign body.Hence,I am involving four elements/items: the lamp(shade)s by the balustrade,the large windows in the apse respectively all over the inside,the static pulpit and the banister on the galleries.

- Design of the pulpit:

My draft is composed of three components:

a.) pedestal

b.) main body

c.) ornament.

a.) The pedestal is a smaller pendant to the static pulpit in this church,its basic shape being an octagon and,on the outside all around,being subdivided in to individual panels and made from the same wood like the prototype in this church.

Addition A: the mobile pulpit was to be "on wheels".I suggest applying four wheels within the pedestal which can be lowered through a pedal on the outside so to make the object moveable..

Addition B: the staircase to the mobile pulpit is borrows from the actual stairs to the church´s altar,to the static pulpit and to the galleries alike and consists of two steps.The material,again,would be the same wood as from the original static pulpit.The small staircase is constructed in a manner such that it can only be attached to and connected with the mobile pulpit once the pedal has lifted the wheels of the pulpit i.e. the staircase can only be applied if the pulpit stands firmly and is stationary.

b.) As a basic shape for the main body of the mobile pulpit I borrow from the shape of the lamp(shade)s by the balustrades in St.John´s Church.This main body will be supported by a trestle situated in front of the main body (made of,for example,aluminium pipes or plastic) in the shape of the large central window of this church.

In reference to Christ´s words "I am the light of the world" resp. standing invariably for Light as a symbol for the power and presence of God as well as an extra optical attraction (especially in view of the regular evening events),I suggest three different options as to materials which may illuminate the pulpit:

a.) frosted glass/Plexiglas or plastic as the technically simplest and probably most inexpensive option;

b.) a further and more developed option would be some kind of illumination behind this material through one or,better still,several lamps;

c.) for me personally,the most beautiful (but most expensive) option would be a main body made of a material which,among other places,was introduced at the "Furtiture Trade Fair 2004" in Cologne and which caused quite a stir at the time: a material made from glass which is transparent when no voltage is applied but which shines pleasantly milky when some voltage is applied.

c.) The design of the golden-coloured ornamentation at the top of the main body borrows from the banister in St.John´s church,in addition to which I placed the Greek letters Alpha and Omega,the former at one end and the latter of the other.Some small lamps could be installed in to the five spherical elements at the upper part of the banister so to illuminate the transparent pew.

- possible additions:

 - with my initial sketch for this competition,I also enclosed two different colour versions:

  - Option A: like the golden-coloured banister and all the otheraccentuations on this colour in and around St.John´s Church,the whole trestle is also golden-coloured;

  - Option B: the trestle takes on i.e. borrows from the dominant colours of the exterior of this church that is to say the brick - red of its brickwork and the copper - green of its roof.

- possibly,a microphone (recording in stereo) could be attached to the pew displaying the Greek letters Alpha and Omega,sligthly apart from one another;

- the height should be variable (in case a speaker is physically small) by means of an additional pedestal and could be made from a milky if nescessary,from Plexiglas resp. plastic which is illuminated from inside;

- depending of the nature of the event in this church,one could affix a note,as to the occasion i.e. the theme of the event at the time,in to the circle of the trestle of the main body (with a slighty transparent yet coloured foil);as it were,a modern form of the altar hangings.