I started the chapel project without a clear idea or concept, almost randomly putting together walls and rooms and the corridors in between. I kept adding new things that were less and less resolved, and I couldn't figure out how to backtrack. Instead of trying to fix my existing design, which began with a series of double walls and ended with a jungle of concrete and glass, I decided to start all over again. Unlike my last, I began this design process with a clear, readable concept: triangles. They are the strongest shape, the simplest yet somehow largely exotic to structures. They represent the trinity, a fundamental idea in any Christian tradition. They create meaningful spaces that are separate from the everyday. My building began with three long rectangles, bent diagonally to form joined triangles, stacked on each other. This central sculptural element became the center of my main chapel, and I expanded and reiterated from there, in the side chapel and entrance way.

I hit a roadblock when trying to incorporate the classroom and office space into the system. I couldn't find a way to resolve the triangular shapes while not competing (hierarchically) with the main chapel. My designs looked overly complicated, unorganized and random, and the form of the spaces was becoming completely disunited with their function. Fearing another design collapse, I sought advice from many others on hoe to resolve the triangular elements in the functional spaces at the back of the building. Leo Chow, during the critique, suggested I taper the back of the building gently to meet with the slope in order to create the classroom and office. He thought I might want to dig in to the landscape so the triangles could delicately join with the ground. This idea proved to be both a way to resolve the triangles and cohesively unite the building in an organized way. I have been using the work of many artists and architects who work with triangles to find further strategies for controlling the shape. The triangle can become a corridor, a way to let expressive light penetrate a space, a special corner, among many other things. These designs, plus many more, are helping me to refine my design as I approach my final chapel proposal.