ArchShowcase 
Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Capela Jesus Mestre in Lisbon, Portugal by site specific – arquitectura, ldaDecember 20th, 2017 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: site specific – arquitectura, lda The project was developed in the context of a close relationship between the Religious Congregation and the studio, which had its beginning with the renewal of Paulistas bookstores and has been developed over time, with the aim of reactivating some community assets together with the need to modernize the image of its commercial department.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja
 Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The Religious Congregation Pia Sociedade São Paulo is a community of around twenty Pauline siblings seeking to evangelize through several media, in particular through the publisher Paulus. The link with books has a central role in the community life whether through research, study or simply through everyday publications.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The congregation´s home sits within Quinta Rainha dos Apóstolos, in Apelação, on the outskirts of Lisboa, in a rural plot, overlooking a broad valley open to the river Tagus. The existing complex includes a pair of long 4-storey blocks sitting on a ground-floor podium. Here we can find the residences of priests and brothers as well as the publisher´s installation and storage. The existing buildings date from 1970’s, are a typical construction from those days, with a straight structure of pillar/beam, without any ambition on design or use definition: both constructive solutions as architectural ones are quite trivial and mundane. There are other buildings scattered throughout the farm that the congregation expects to recover in the medium term.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja We were requested to design a library and the new chapel in two distinct phases; the first phase, the library, plays a key role in this community and its reading room should be seen not only as a working area, for studying and research, but as a space for the gathering of the community and as a representative space where main meetings and special events could take place; the second phase, the chapel, or a small church, built in a particular house for particular people, it should be the central area for a house of many homes; a space for prayer and for communication; a place of intimacy as well as assembly.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The Chapel The chapel, consecrated to Jesus Master, sits on a ground-floor podium, between the two main buildings, originally used as a warehouse. This was the area chosen to locate the chapel, taking advantage of its central position in relation to the spaces where to live, to work, to welcome and to pray. The chapel therefore operates as the heart of the Institute, both physically and symbolically; it provides the link between members of the brotherhood and reaches the wider lay community through their publishing/ missionary activities.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The project reuses the existing building and aims to provide it with a new meaning; this is done through a process of austere and rigorous designing, which relies on the simplicity of volumes, natural lighting and inherent qualities of proposed materials. The concrete structure is retained, bare and imperfect but suitable nevertheless, and somehow up-lifted by the new context. The room is revealed as a whole and wide space, without artifice or excess: a backdrop for the liturgical fittings to enhance and impart with a sacred and theological sense.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja Among those, the central altar stands out. This is built in solid timber, with no delineation of presbytery – a place for all, without hierarchies. In conjunction with the pulpit, this allows a wide range of layouts and different degrees of intimacy for liturgical celebrations: private celebrations with community brothers gathered around the altar with the garden behind (orientation north / south); regular celebrations with lay assembly (placed along the longitudinal axis with the celebrant facing west); and festive celebrations that fill the chapel (orientation north / south).  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The Cross is designed as an integral part of the celebrations and the building. It is physically connected to the concrete structure through an interlocking joint, but can be disengaged to be carried in procession, thus marking the beginning and the end of celebrations.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The internal space is strongly marked by two joinery elements, both with clear liturgical function: the sacristy to the west side, which includes the confessional booth open to the garden, and the partition wall to the south side, which frames the depictions of Jesus Way of the Cross. This wall does not enclose the chapel completely: it allows for the room to be perceived as a whole, through glimpses of the corridor behind it providing connection between the existing buildings.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The external space to the north replicates the volume of the chapel. More than a mere garden, this area is designed as an extension to the praying space. Part of the whole through geometry and materiality, it adds water and vegetation to the simplicity of the set. Public access to the chapel is granted from the south, identified by a timber door with an engraved cross and a bell, both designed in line with the general principles of the project.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja The brief required depictions of particular devotions of this brotherhood to be included. These were considered from the start as part of the design, instead of later additions. Original art work was executed in situ by Bartolomeu de Gusmão, on walls and joinery surfaces, creating an intense and global relationship between the space and the religious community. Together, the space and the elements that populate the space convey a clear and critical message to its users – reinforcing the sense of belonging and sharing that imbued the original commission.  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © do mal o menos . Eduardo Nascimento / João Fôja  Image Courtesy © site specific – arquitectura, lda  Image Courtesy © site specific – arquitectura, lda
Categories: Church, Community Centre, complex |
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
