From the first time I saw our site, I knew that I wanted to use a visual language that somehow related to the environment. One concept I explored early on was manipulation of slices and contours. After hearing Patti talk about the craggy rocks that she saw during her visit to the site, this exploration of contour-hugging slices culminated in the form of my final model.
The inclusion of the reflecting pool came out of conversations with Ben, Robert and Adam, who were exploring the interaction between light and water. Now that my rock was surrounded by water, it seemed the only logical thing to do was to add a lighthouse, which I did in the guise of a side chapel.
I struggled for a while with how to design the altar area and lobby in a way that would speak to the importance of these areas without feeling tacked on. This dilemma was finally resolved when I took a page out of the CEE130 playbook and thought of these areas as places of intersection and rotation.
The massing of the classroom, office and bathrooms came last. I had originally planned on making each of these rooms separate buildings so that some of them could be used to block the noise from the street, but after I decided on including a large reflecting pool, it made more sense to cluster these remaining spaces.
Part I: Form
The main driver behind my design decisions for the project was the site of the chapel. The teaching team really gave us a gift with the Land's End location. The scenery at the site is raw, powerful, and natural, yet taken together, provides a near spiritual experience. This bridging of the earthly and the divine was something I strove to address in the form of my chapel.
The Earthly
The main body of the chapel evokes the partially submerged rocks that litter the coastline at Land's End. The usage of reinforced concrete and the squat shape of the mass give it an overwhelming sense of earthliness and groundedness.
The Divine
The pure, prismatic solids that intersect and penetrate the main body of the chapel stand in stark contrast to the rugged environment that surrounds them. Their translucent nature lends them a weightlessness and ethereal quality that makes them seem like crystals fallen from the heavens.
Bridging the gap
The combination of earthly and heavenly forms helps visitors and passerbys understand the function of the chapel as a bridge between earth and heaven. In plan, the heavenly forms also correspond to more contemplative or spiritual areas of the chapel. These angled spaces include the altar area, the side chapel, and the sheltered vestibule.
Part II: The Approach
Land's End has such compelling and dramatic views, attempting to block or blunt them would only have been fighting a losing battle. At the same time, I did not want my congregants to be distracted by expansive views while trying to have an intimate spiritual experience inside the chapel. I resolved these conflicting desires by addressing each of them in separate portions of the procession. The expansive experience is given its place in the approach to the chapel, while the intimate experience dominates the interior.
Visitors enter the site and pass the office/classroom complex to their right. Continuing downhill towards the water, visitors are treated to an expansive view of the Pacific ocean merged with the reflecting pool. Ahead to the left are a pair of dark rocks (beloved detail/zen view), a stepping stone pathway leading to this place of meditation, and to the right is the massive chapel. The meandering pathway towards the chapel is meant to give visitors time to appreciate the inspiring view and the vastness of nature. By the time guests reach the funnel-shaped vestibule of the chapel, they have thoroughly absorbed the expansive view, and are ready to turn their attention inwards and heavenwards.
Part III: Interior
In the chapel, the overpowering direct light gives way to carefully controlled strips of light and indirect glow. The roar of cars and ocean has diminished to a faint hum. This is a place of meditation, rest, and repose.
The narrow bands of expressive light cast interesting patterns on the seats and congregants, growing in length as the sun sets. This is similar to a hallway and staircase by Ando I came across in a magazine.
The soft glow spilling out from the side chapel and bathing the altar area lend these spaces a spiritual feel. This indirect lighting and light piping is much like Holl's use of reflected light in his Chapel of St. Ignatius.
Part IV: Grouping
I spent probably close to 95% of my project time working on and thinking about the chapel/side-chapel complex. It was important to me to have these two spiritual areas adjacent to one another and for them to be visually strong, because they are the raison d'etre for the rest of the site. Because of this, I also did not want to muddle the impact of these spiritual areas with less lofty spaces like an office or classroom. This led me to create two clusters of buildings, one spiritual, the other sacred.
The spiritual area of the site occupies the bottom half of the site and includes the water and everything touching the water. The focus of this area is generally outwards, towards the limitless ocean and sky.
The secular area of the site occupies the space overlooking the reflecting pond and includes the bathrooms, office, classroom and a lobby space. The form of these buildings are significantly simpler than that of the spiritual complex, but still relate to the angular nature of the rest of the site. In general, the secular complex is more oriented towards the hill and cypress grove in the NW corner of the site. Only the lobby, which serves as the main hub for the complex, has a major western vista.
By using the buildings to create a sheltered space in the NW corner of the site, I gave the children an area to safely play without disturbing anyone that might be meditating in the spiritual complex.
Part V: Final Thoughts
Despite the toll it took on my sleep, I did enjoy working on this project a lot. Having to balance design criteria like expressive light and zen vista with programmatic requirements like square footage limits was both challenging and insightful. I've definitely gained an appreciation for the amount of work tha goes into creating a proposal for even a very limited program like this chapel, and enjoyed picking up some architectural vocabulary along the way.
My favorite part of the project was the fact that the AD community was so willing to help each other out. From fellow 130 students, to older students, to the teaching team, I found a wealth of insights (not to mention considerable technical help) whenever I talked to someone else about my project. It was nice to take ownership of such a complete project, and to have enough time to bring it to some level of realization. I'm personally proud that I was able to fight my way through some difficult design decisions late in the game, and produce a model I'm fairly satisfied with. I think the best test of a model's success is whether or not you'd want to experience it in full scale, and right about now, there's few places I'd rather be than in my chapel by the sea.
THANKS FOR A GREAT QUARTER EVERYONE!
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