Andreaskirche

Andreaskirche in Zurich is a Reformed church from the mid-1960s on Brahmsstrasse in the Wiedikon district (Kreis 3). It forms part of a parish complex and shows how austere, cube-based modernist design looked in postwar Swiss church building.

Where is the Andreaskirche, and who built it?

The church stands at Brahmsstrasse 106 in western Zurich, in the part of Wiedikon also called Heiligfeld. The Evangelical Reformed parish of Zurich commissioned it. The wider site covers several addresses on the same street, numbers 96 to 106. A University of Bern inventory of sacred buildings gives 1965 to 1966 as the construction period and names Jakob Padrutt as architect. The city's heritage documentation instead speaks of the mid-1960s and credits the firm Plan-E AG.

What will you see?

The form is the main attraction. The church and the parish hall are two parallel cubes joined by a lower foyer with recessed facades. The plan is strictly rectangular and the volumes carry almost no decoration. That radical reduction is why the city lists the complex in its heritage inventory.

A freestanding bell tower marks the way in. The buildings gather around a courtyard with an arcaded walkway linking the different parts of the site. To the east and north-east stand older pitched-roof buildings: the vicarage, the parish house and an attached sexton's house. Together with the flat-roofed church buildings they form a right-angled group around the courtyard.

Inside, the church has a coffered ceiling. Archive photographs also show a freestanding exterior element known as the monolith, and the floor plan centres the space on the middle of the nave.

Is it a working church?

Yes. It is an active parish site, not a museum, so access to the interior depends on services and parish events. The complex is best appreciated from outside, where the courtyard, arcade and bell tower are easy to see from the street and from within the grounds.

Recent additions

In 2024 a photovoltaic system went onto the roofs. The panels sit on a mounting system that leaves the roof structure untouched. Dark modules cover the flat roofs of the parish hall and the vestibule, set back from the edges, so they are barely visible. They occupy about 320 m², have a capacity of roughly 73 kWp and produce about 66,200 kWh a year on average.

Frequently asked questions

Who designed the Andreaskirche? The Bern inventory names Jakob Padrutt, while the city's heritage page credits the firm Plan-E AG.

When was it built? In the mid-1960s; sources give a range of 1963 to 1966.

Which denomination does it belong to? It is an Evangelical Reformed church.

Is it worth visiting for the architecture alone? Yes, if you are interested in Zurich modernism. The compact arrangement of cubes, the arcaded courtyard and the freestanding bell tower make a coherent, minimalist ensemble.