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

Chapel Process

I made my study model and massing model out of cardboard and paper. I wanted to explore the idea of having the main chapel actually be on the roof. I do not like the intimidating atmosphere of a normal chapel in which you have really high ceilings and the chapel is really dark. It makes the congregation feel small and insignificant. With my chapel, I really wanted to try to celebrate the individual.

I also wanted to look into making my chapel look like a ship, since the site is by the ocean. I made two clear-story type windows at the ends to mimic the bow and stern. I also decided to make the roof structure over the roof top chapel area resemble the sails of a sailboat.

Final Wall Project

I was inspired initially by James Sterling’s Andrew Melville Hall. It was interesting to me how the hall’s sharp angles created such compelling negative spaces. I decided to play with the idea of a puzzle because a community center is a place where the disparate parts of the community come together as one. The puzzle imagery also lends itself to dramatic negative space and interlocking systems.

Because of their height, I wanted to make the walls on the thinner side to bring them to a human level and to make them less daunting masses. I also wanted to keep the feeling like the walls were perforated. I didn’t bring them all the way to the top in order to keep the sense that they were modules (pieces of a puzzle).

The puzzle sheets are orderly and imposing. I brought chaos into the system by punching pieces of the puzzle out of the wall. This adds movement to a static system. The piece gets smaller and rotates across wall; when you walk in, you realize it has been
punched into the room. There is also chaos in the fact that entryway isn’t completely clear…you have to wind your way around in order to find it (in keeping with the puzzle imagery).


The piece rotates and gets smaller and closer to the wall by a 3rd every time to mimic the
fact that the façade of the system is divided into thirds as well. There is a glass casement between the pieces and the wall to play with the light as it bounces into room.

As you walk in, the square materializes into sitting blocks that form a lobby/seating area.
The first block is only half materialized to indicate an evolving mass. The final block you realize is the complete 3D form of the original “flat” puzzle piece.

Forming the 3rd wall of the sitting area is a piece of the puzzle that juts through the wall
and into the space as if the pattern was repeating itself outside the community center.
The sitting cube has a private zen view; in order to appreciate the zen view you must be sitting on the block. There is a screen to semi-block off the sitting room from the rest of the community center.

I incorporated skeletal vs mass by punching the pieces out of the wall. The vertical mullions are reminiscent of when you pull off the outer paper of a puzzle piece
and see the threads that ultimately make the shape.

The New Yorker

Hi Everyone,

I'm an avid reader of the New Yorker and in the most recent issue, there is a whole article about one of the buildings (Aqua by Jeanne Gang) that somebody posted in an earlier thread.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2010/02/01/100201crsk_skyline_goldberger

Nancy

wall assignment

I really like making study models out of paper. Paper is easy to tear, fold, and cut. Because paper is easy to manipulate, I find that my train of thought is uninterrupted and I can quickly see my new ideas. I think that spending time cutting through a harder material buts a crimp in the creative process. In the early stages of design, I like to be able to quickly build and manipulate...paper is an excellent medium for this.

System Cohesion

It was important to us to create a certain cohesion between our different roof elements. The underside of our Pinos roof mimics the Fehn style with the addition of the cross beams. The entryway is a hybrid of both the Pinos and the Fehn with the angularity (Pinos) and the beams on the underside (Fehn). The vertical supports that hold the structure up also reference the nature of a tree with its diagonal branches. Finally, the bird's eye view of our system shows how we melded the entryway with the Fehn roof. Even though there is a physical break within the structure (which we wanted in order to keep the courtyard open), the overhang fills in the "gap" and creates a cohesion between the two structures.

Creating a Level, Dropped Ceiling

We started by making the strings especially long so that we could carefully lower the dropped ceiling within the space. Then, to ensure that the ceiling was completely level, we created a foam core cube to rest the wood on while the strings glued themselves to the roof.

Fehn Jig

In order to create an accurate grid system for our Fehn roof, we constructed a jig made out of foam core in which the beams could nestle into while the glue dried.