A ROCA DE LUZ – SITE CHAPEL – Competition…
The Chapel is the meeting point of a natural environment and a supernatural event. As a rock fallen from the sky, the chapel stands on the rough and mineral Peseigueiro Island and faces the ocean. The near fortress geometry and the monoliths of the quarry inspire the building’s clear-cut shape. The shuttered concrete shell will face the elements and growing mosses for decades, if not centuries, progressively merging with its surrounding landscape.
When arriving from behind, the visitor can not understand the chapel’s secret until he finds the entrance split -hidden between two concrete layers- and penetrates the bright interior space. As a divine surprise, a rain of colourful lights spread into the golden wood volume, creating a dramatic contrast with the exterior. Concentrated around the cornerstone main angle, stained-glass cubes, lens-shaped, propagate the sunlight into an ever-changing light motion.
The chaotic geometry that the visitors first perceived shifts into a retrieved symmetry at the Altar’s back. The large opening, axed on the West, will align perfectly with the headland Cross at solstices sunsets, allowing dusk contemplation for most of the year.
Mimicking the ancient cathedrals lightness through a diffracting prism principle, the chapel is indeed a rock of light, “A Rocha de Luz”
