Domforum

Fritz Schaller conceived a building whose architectural elements dissolve the conventional sense of an enclosed space. A concrete grid façade unites the four upper storeys, and its steel support pillars also carry the roof above the recessed top floor. Inside, a square, glazed atrium rises through all five storeys up to a glass roof, bounded on the first floor by a circular opening. The floor-to-ceiling glass panels on the ground floor are structured by a close-meshed, diamond-shaped net; rather than closing the foyer off, they act like a membrane, so that the Domplatte seems to continue into the building. The former banking hall now serves as an event room and offers a panoramic view over the Domplatte with the cathedral, the main railway station and the replica of the great finial.

As a visitor centre, the Domforum arranges around 8,000 guided tours a year for the roughly six million people who visit the cathedral, while the forum itself welcomes about 300,000 visitors annually. A basement cinema regularly screens films about the cathedral. As a city-pastoral information and meeting centre, it offers information about the Catholic Church in Cologne, conversations and counselling on religious questions, help in mental and physical distress, and spiritual impulses; a meditation room provides space for quiet. As an events centre it takes up themes of faith, urban life and civic education in more than 400 events a year, with music, readings, exhibitions, a film forum and lectures on art, city, church and architecture. The same building also houses the Catholic City Deanery of Cologne, the Catholic Education Centre, the Cologne Catholics' Committee, the cathedral parish office, the Domradio and the Catholic faith information service FIDES.