Doors into walls.

Access door [far left, behind Christmas tree] to the stair leading to the pulpit [center].

Access door to pulpit stair, detail.

Access door to belltower stair.

These three images are from the Reformed Church, Hinwil, Switzerland. I love the approach to circulation - if it gets too messy, just stick it in a wall. It gives the building [which is a very simple volume] not only a Dr Seuss quality - doors and passages and stairways disappearing, wacky scales  - but also a theatrical quality. The preacher disappears through a door into a wall, then reappears high on the wall in the pulpit. This obviously serves a liturgical purpose [the centrality and importance of the "word proclaimed" in Protestant, and particularly Reformed, theology], but also lends an air of mystery, as the ascent of the preacher is hidden from view, and the origin of his/her emergence appears to be, paradoxically, a thin wall, or even outside, as the windows behind him/her attest.

It's an interesting approach to a practical problem - a moment when practicality is shunted in favor of maintaining the purity of the interior volume and creating drama. I also think it's fun - and I can't help but imagine that the gravitas of the moment when the preacher emerges from the wall into the pulpit must be tinged with a bit of whimsy and curiosity...