Final Chapel Project

Final Project Blog

My principle design goal for the chapel project was to make the congregation feel like they themselves were the ones being celebrated. I wanted to design a sense of empowerment into the structure. Out of this concept came a rooftop “infinity” chapel. I use the term infinity here because the base of the chapel is made out of an opaque glass and at the end it cantilevers out to resemble buildings by Holl. I wanted to avoid the traditional design of a chapel in which there are dark looming walls that intimate the congregation; the rooftop chapel thus omits many boundaries and constrictions. To reach the rooftop chapel, the congregation climbs up stairs such that to an onlooker, it would seem as if the people were climbing up the side of the structure (this also lends to the overall design objective to incorporate empowerment into the chapel). For cover and protection from the elements, triangular shapes mimicking the sails on a ship splay out over the congregation. These sails are supported by rods that angle chaotically towards stays in the ground. The roofs on either side of the central structure are tilted at extreme angles to mimic the bow and stern of a ship.

Expressive light is cast onto the congregation by the shadows from the sails. Expressive light is also incorporated into the side chapel; due to the orientation of the door, a stream of light outlines the seating area. The zen view is captured just as a person reaches the top of the staircase before stepping onto the roof – the tip of a sail and the angled roof come together to frame a piece of the ocean. As characteristic of a zen view, this view is a fleeting one – a person sees it only briefly on his/her way up to the chapel.

The beloved detailing in my project is the patterning of the mullions on the entryway and the cantilever. The entryway mullions help frame the front of the building (adding a focus to the front) and thus funnel people inwards. The mullion pattern under the cantilever adds structural support, but also provides an aesthetically pleasing frame underneath the glass.

I wanted to use many different materials in the construction of my chapel to make it seem like there are disparate elements fusing together to make one cohesive building. The shape that cuts through the central rectangle is made out of a different material as is the rooftop and the sails. The core is concrete and the flanges are wood.

Process Notes

It took many different iterations to achieve the final product. My initial designs were confined to a single rectangular building in which the inside had interesting design elements, but the outside was relatively plain looking. Glenn encouraged me to expand the outer boundaries of the system. I went back to the drawing board and experimented with pushing and pulling the walls of my chapel. With the help of Professor Walters, I learned about how manipulating everyday shapes can really augment a design idea. After this iteration with Professor Walters I added the shapes to mimic the bow and stern of the ship. I played around with their location with respect to the core of the structure and ultimately had the shapes orientated so that it looked as if they were cutting through the central core of the building. In this way, I could also introduce elements of skeletal versus mass. (skeletal versus mass also comes into play in the clear story windows beneath the tilted roofs on either side of the main chapel area). I then evolved the design a step further to include design elements reminiscent of Steven Holl. I ultimately settled on cantilevering out the main chapel to provide an additional space for introspection. I then spent a lot of time thinking about materials. I wanted to introduce a sense of chaos into a relatively ordered structure through varying the materials. After considering different combinations of wood, stone and glass, I decided I wanted to have the central core be concrete, the flanges be wood and the chapel (the roof) would be an opaque glass