Antoniushaus Feldkirch

The Antoniushaus in Feldkirch has been run by the Kreuzschwestern for more than 120 years. Today it is a house of different generations with a convent for the nuns, kindergarten, old persons home, hostel and nursing home. In 2013 as part of the revitalization and extension of the building, Atelier Andrea Gassner designed the signage and the safety graphics on the glass walls. The Atelier was recently commissioned to design a suitable element to mark the entrance. References for this design were the logo and the mission statement of this international religious order with a Franciscan spirituality. The existing logo is a cross form with narrow openings in a square. The cross is here a symbol of the Kreuzschwestern. The three-dimensional cross form that develops upwards on the plan of the logo conveys a new sculptural expression of the existing symbol. Where the four steel corners meet, openings are made into the vertical interior. At dusk and in the night strips of lighting shine out of these openings, in this way the sculpture extends outwards and on the ground. The founder of the order, P. Theodosius Florentini, once coined the slogan “The needs of the time are God’s will”. This sentence is at eye level in the internal spaces of the cross form. The Antiqua typeface “Swift” with its elongated serifs and emphatic letter forms creates an appropriate contrast to the raw, rusted background of Corten steel.