Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2020

AVAN­TO – CHA­PEL OF ST LAWRENCE

Desi­gner Anu Puu­sti­nen and Vil­le Hara
Loca­tion Pap­pi­lan­ku­ja 3, 01510 Van­taa, Finland
Desi­gn Team

Avan­to Archi­tec­ts Ltd / Vil­le Hara and Anu Puu­sti­nen (prin­ci­pal desi­gner), Archi­tec­ts SAFA
Felix Lai­ti­nen, stu­dent of Architecture
Tom­mi Tuok­ko­la, Archi­tect SAFA
Jon­na Käp­pi, Archi­tect ARB, SAFA
Pio­tr Gniewek, stu­dent of Architecture
Asa­mi Nai­to, stu­dent of Architecture
Anno 2010
Pho­to credits

Exte­rior and pyhanlaurinkappeli__069 kuvio.jpg by kuvio.com. Inte­rior by Tuo­mas Uusheimo.

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

Con­text
Ceme­te­ry cha­pel is situa­ted in the vici­ni­ty of the histo­ric Church of St. Law­ren­ce in Vantaa.
The old sto­ne church with its bell tower remain the domi­nant fea­tu­res in the land­sca­pe. The cha­pel has been divi­ded in smal­ler parts to adapt with the sca­le of the sur­roun­dings. The stac­ked sto­ne walls of the ceme­te­ry are echoed in the desi­gn – a series of three cha­pels of dif­fe­rent sizes are nested within ortho­go­nal mason­ry walls.
The buil­ding uses simi­lar mate­rials as the old struc­tu­res in the area: ren­de­red bric­k­work, natu­ral sto­ne, pati­na­ted cop­per sheet and mesh. The par­ti­tion walls are in-situ cast whi­te con­cre­te. The life­span tar­get for the cha­pel is two hun­dred years. An open art com­pe­ti­tion was sche­du­led befo­re the final con­struc­tion docu­men­ts were draf­ted, so that the art could be inte­gra­ted as a seam­less part of the architecture.

Spa­ce for grief
The cha­pel is desi­gned to assi­st the mour­ner, giving spa­ce for grief. The peo­ple atten­ding the fune­ral fol­low a silent rou­te throu­gh a series of sacral spa­ces, punc­tua­ted by inter­me­dia­te rooms. The inter­me­dia­te spa­ces pre­pa­re the visi­tors for the next pha­se of the fune­ral. The whi­tewa­shed mason­ry walls and a con­ti­nuous sky­light next to it lead from one spa­ce to the next, from the low and dark to the lof­ty and light.

Path, a sym­bo­lic route
The chapel’s archi­tec­tu­re is a depic­tion of the pas­sa­ge of a Chri­stian soul from here to the hereafter.
We approach along­si­de the outer wall. The wall and the bell tower at its end speak of the ear­th­bound jour­ney and its ending. We turn the cor­ner and, shel­te­red by an ove­rhang, fol­low the wall, to a small cour­tyard — a small pond, with natu­ral sto­nes at its bottom.
We enter a dim­ly lit lob­by with a low cei­ling, we can glimp­se the entran­ce court and the old gar­den of the vica­ra­ge behind us. Here it is pos­si­ble to stop for a moment and reflect on the expe­rien­ces and life shared with the deceased.
We fol­low the sky­light to the cha­pel. The cha­pel opens up, a high spa­ce ter­mi­na­ting in the brightly lit junc­tion of the mason­ry wall, whe­re the decea­sed will be met by the mour­ners. The wall towards the gra­veyard is semi trans­pa­rent, gla­zed with a pati­na­ted cop­per mesh on either side, a screen bet­ween this life and the hereaf­ter. From the cha­pel we exit, throu­gh a small gar­den, to the gra­veyard. The path turns – but continues.

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Foto inter­ni

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