Local studio Medprostor has covered and partially repaired a 900-year-old Romanesque church in Slovenia, placing an operable roof on top of the open structure to create a space "between a ruin and a reconstruction".
Medprostor crafted a series of modest interventions alongside the folding roof that aim to protect the significant monastic building, located inside the fortified grounds of the historic ?i?e Charterhouse.
The repairs and alterations were also intended to improve its functionality for tourism and events.
Medprostor has topped a 12th-century church with a folding roof in Slovenia
According to the studio, the project was conceived to protect the church's immaterial qualities as an ancient and sacred place, in addition to preserving its physical remains. "The construction and restoration interventions were carried out in such a way that they enable a chronological reading of the 900-year-old sacral space," Medprostor cofounder Jerneja Fischer Knap told Dezeen.
"[The design] fully conforms to the requirements of heritage protection for reversibility, with less invasive and less intense interventions," he continued.
The half-gable roof structure spans the length of the church and can be opened to the sky
"The largest intervention was the covering of the existing building with a semi-movable, folding roof," Knap said.
"When lowered, it enables the smooth running of events in the church regardless of the season and weather, ...