Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2020

ENLA­CE ARQUI­TEC­TU­RA – SAN JUAN MARIA VIAN­NEY CHURCH

Desi­gner	Eli­sa Silva
Loca­tion	Media Legua — Var­gas Sta­te, Venezuela
Desi­gn Team	Enla­ce Arqui­tec­tu­ra, Eli­sa Silva
Anno	2018
Pho­to credits	Car­los Ancheta

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

The San Juan María Vian­ney Church enjoys a magni­fi­cent view from the nor­thern moun­tain ran­ge of Vene­zue­la towards the Carib­bean Sea and is part of the rural com­mu­ni­ty La Media Legua, appro­xi­ma­te­ly two and a half hours from Cara­cas, in the sta­te of Var­gas. The church is desi­gned to recei­ve 200 peo­ple from near­by areas, many of whom tra­vel by foot. The pro­ject also con­tem­pla­tes bedrooms and spa­ces for spi­ri­tual retrea­ts for a futu­re phase.

The church is built of con­cre­te blocks con­ver­ted into struc­tu­ral walls by inser­ting rebar and pou­red con­cre­te into the inte­rior cavi­ties. Abo­ve the 2.40- meter mark, which cor­re­sponds to 12 rows of blocks, ope­nings begin to appear that increa­se in width as
the wall rises, allo­wing the inte­rior spa­ce to be ven­ti­la­ted and natu­ral­ly illu­mi­na­ted. Three lar­ger ope­nings at eye level bring the exte­rior land­sca­pe clo­ser to the church, fra­ming trees and a cross. The con­struc­tion was done by mem­bers of the Media Legua com­mu­ni­ty. The mate­rials, con­cre­te blocks and steel, were cho­sen becau­se they could be obtained
with rela­ti­ve ease, sin­ce con­struc­tion mate­rial shor­ta­ges have been an issue in the coun­try for many years. Ano­ther advan­ta­ge is that con­cre­te and steel requi­re mini­mal maintenance.

The church is loca­ted in the Tar­mas Parish, which has a popu­la­tion of 13,500 inha­bi­tan­ts, many of whom live in pover­ty. In terms of ter­ri­to­ry, the parish is very lar­ge with long distan­ces bet­ween villages. 

The grounds of the church have an area of over 2,000 m² that ori­gi­nal­ly belon­ged to the Mon­ter­rey fami­ly, who were bene­fi­cia­ries in the 1960s Agra­rian Reform Law. Years later, cuts were made into a pie­ce of land to level it, in pre­pa­ra­tion for a uni­ver­si­ty agri­cul­tu­ral pro­gram that was never mate­ria­li­zed. The idea of crea­ting a church instead, aro­se out of com­mu­ni­ty con­cern that the site might be expro­pria­ted by the govern­ment to build a socia­li­st mar­ket or one of its social pro­grams kno­wn as “mis­sions” due to rumors they had heard. They deci­ded to approach Father Abe­lar­do Bazó, the Parish Prie­st of Tar­mas, with the pro­po­sal to build a church on the site. This idea also cor­re­sponds with the community´s lack of a near­by pla­ce of wor­ship, whe­re most were obli­ged to tra­vel more than an hour on foot to get to a church. This is how the ini­tia­ti­ve to crea­te in that spe­ci­fic pla­ce, the
Church of Media Legua was born. It took 10 years to build, and was finan­ced by the Fun­da­ción Adve­niat of Essen Ger­ma­ny, the New Evan­ge­li­za­tion Fund of Madrid, the Parish of the San­tos Apó­sto­les in Ovie­do, Spain. España, and pri­va­te dona­tions from fami­lies in
Vene­zue­la for a total invest­ment of 47,000 USD. Once built, the church was con­se­cra­ted as San Juan María Vian­ney, in honor of the 150-year anni­ver­sa­ry of the Ars Prie­st’s birth.

Today the church repre­sen­ts the cen­ter of the com­mu­ni­ty. The spa­ce that pre­ce­des the church func­tions as a public squa­re and with suc­ces­si­ve dona­tions will be equip­ped with fur­ni­tu­re, lighting and swings for chil­dren. Given the cir­cum­stan­ces and chal­len­ges that ari­se in Vene­zue­la to per­form the most mun­da­ne tasks, the fact that the community
mana­ged to com­ple­te the church and use it for reli­gious cele­bra­tions is in and of itself a very signi­fi­cant achievement.

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