Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2024

vati­­can-cha­­pel-for-la-bie­n­­na­­le-di-vene­­zia-2018 / Portugal

EDUAR­DO SOU­TO MOURA

Pro­get­ti­sta Eduar­do Sou­to de Moura
Loca­tion Island of the San Gior­gio Mag­gio­re, Venice
Nazio­ne Por­tu­gal
Desi­gn Team

Archi­tect: Eduar­do Sou­to de Moura
Col­la­bo­ra­tor: Simão Sandim
Local Col­la­bo­ra­tor: Fran­ce­sco Magnani
Anno 2018
Cre­di­ti Fotografici

All pho­to cre­di­ts belong to: Luís Fer­rei­ra Alves / Casa da Arqui­tec­tu­ra Archive

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

‘No, it’s not a cha­pel, not a sanc­tua­ry and nei­ther a tomb. It’s sim­ply a pla­ce enclo­sed by four sto­ne walls, with ano­ther sto­ne at the cen­tre which could be the altar. The entran­ce is scree­ned by a tree we wan­ted to pre­ser­ve. The walls, insi­de, have a led­ge on which we can sit and wait… wai­ting with our feet on the ground, head in hands. “Things them­sel­ves know when they ought to hap­pen.’’’ (1)

Eduar­do Sou­to de Moura

(1) David Mou­rão Ferreira

The Cha­pel desi­gned by Eduar­do Sou­to Mou­ra is not a cha­pel or a sanc­tua­ry, and nei­ther a tomb. It’s a pla­ce enclo­sed by four walls, with a sto­ne at the cen­tre that could be the altar.
This cha­pel is a sim­ple struc­tu­re, built with lar­ge Vicen­za sto­ne ashlars car­ved and joi­ned so that they form an elon­ga­ted and par­tial­ly cove­red tra­pe­zoid. The entran­ce is at one of the ends, right by a tree. A led­ge on the insi­de walls offers the visi­tors a pla­ce to sit. The two roof slabs are pla­ced one metre from the rear wall to let the sun­light in. Behind the stone/altar, a hori­zon­tal line cuts the ver­ti­cal joint of the sto­ne wall, car­ving out a cross.
The Holy See deci­ded to par­ti­ci­pa­te for the fir­st time in the Veni­ce Archi­tec­tu­re Bien­na­le, with a uni­que pro­po­sal: ten small cha­pels built in the woods of San Gior­gio Mag­gio­re Island, all of them inspi­red by the emble­ma­tic cha­pel built in 1920 by Erik Gun­nard Asplund in Stoc­khol­m’s Wood­land Ceme­te­ry. Our pro­po­sal promp­ts to reflect on the mea­ning of cha­pels in the 21st cen­tu­ry, by con­si­de­ring it an iso­la­ted ele­ment, free from the beliefs of spe­ci­fic reli­gions and deta­ched from our usual con­cep­tions. With this aim in mind, we had total crea­ti­ve free­dom, fol­lo­wing just one pre­mi­se: it had to address the two essen­tial litur­gi­cal func­tions, the rea­ding of the Scrip­tu­res and the pro­vi­sion of an altar.
This auste­re cha­pel was built with thick solid walls of Vicen­za stone.
Insi­de, a lar­ge slab pla­ced at one end beco­mes an altar and a led­ge along the four walls offers the visi­tors a pla­ce to sit.

Rela­zio­ne illu­stra­ti­va del progetto
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Foto inter­ni

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