Fewer and fewer church buildings can be preserved in their current sacred use, in particular due to the continuously decreasing number of church members. Using selected examples, a cross-section of structural and functional church conversions is presented, as well as the associated planning and decision-making processes.

An outstanding example of this is the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche in Gelsenkirchen, which was built between 1927 and 1929 according to the plans of the architect Josef Franke in the style of brick expressionism. After the church was decommissioned in 2007, the imposing building was threatened with gradual decay. The city of Gelsenkirchen bought the building and, with considerable funding, an event hall was created that is unrivaled in the Ruhr area. After an appearance in November 2022, Götz Alsmann said: "If I can congratulate a city, it's Gelsenkirchen on this sensational temple of culture."

Dipl.-Ing. Clemens Arens studied architecture at the RWTH Aachen, specializing in urban planning. After working in private planning offices, he completed his training with the second state examination at the district government in Münster. His professional path took him to Gelsenkirchen via the planning departments of Recklinghausen and Datteln. There it was shaped by the international building exhibition Emscherpark, which provided important impetus in the Ruhr area from 1989 to 1999. He then headed the departments of urban planning and building regulations of the city of Gelsenkirchen until November 2020.

Baukultur in Marl is organized by the Skulpturenmuseum and the Adult Education Center in cooperation with the ruhrmoderne e.V. initiative. The event will take place at 7 p.m. in the VHS die insel (Wiesenstraße 22, 45770 Marl) in room P1 and is free of charge - please register at 02365/50356699 or www.vhs-marl.de.

Photo: Clemens Arens