Monday, February 17, 2014

Mark Terra-Salomão | Looking Out Week 4

Here is the Capela Árvore da Vida (Tree of Life Chapel) by Cerejeira Fontes Arquitectos at the St. James Seminary in Braga, Portugal. It is designed as "a space for solitude, prayer and quiet reflection for inhabitants of the seminary." In case I haven't made it explicitly clear yet, we Portuguese love our churches and chapels. 




The openness of the structure seeks not to place restrictions and limits between "inside" and "outside." The chapel doesn't make use of nails, bolts, or any other hardware, yet consists of twenty tons of wood. This is pretty impressive in and of itself, although it certainly would be even more impressive if this chapel was a freestanding building, instead of a structure within an already-existing church. You win some, you lose some.



Apparently, every structural detail of the chapel is inspired by biblical passages, and the plan and general design considerations represent the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest. It's like Gothic architecture for the new age! Regardless, the details do fit in quite nicely with the overall structure:




Plenty of room for your bibles and holy water. All built-in, too!

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