Alternative churches. From desacralization to adaptive-reuse

The desacralisation of churches, as a widespread phenomenon in Europe, has left its mark on states with a prolific secular character, leaving room for intervention on the material religious heritage in an innovative way. The architect has thus the opportunity to shape the space of a church in a new way, with different mechanisms and techniques of intervention in order to adapt the inert tectonics to the new values of the contemporary world. The re-inclusion of non-functional churches in society through new architectural programmes inserted in their desacralised structural shell is the main aim of the initiative to preserve and refunctionalise it. The search for functional alternatives suitable for the new context for the old structure is the main challenge the architect faces in the design process. As each church is placed in a different context with its own social, cultural, economic and political characteristics, the process of refunctionalisation is one rooted in the specificity of the place. The process involves a number of experts from related fields, who work upon a diagnosis of the area and elaborate a suitable hypothesis to design a new function of the old church. Thus, from an empirical point of view, the materiality of the church continues, although the values it served have lost their relevance. It can accommodate new functions that meet the current needs of the neighbouring community. The challenge is to identify and manage the specific elements of each church as an architectural object at the confluence of several socio-economic factors and, secondly, to define an alternative solution for the originally sacred function.