Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2024

abbey-of-til­­burg / Uganda

Ange­la Nkurunziza

Pro­get­ti­sta Stu­dio FH / Localworks
Loca­tion Ein­d­ho­ven­seweg 3, 5056 RP Berkel-Enschot
Nazio­ne Nether­lands
Desi­gn Team

Allan Sema­ku­la, Char­les Sse­gi­ri­nya, Debo­rah Tusii­me, Edson Agu­me, Emma Mugi­sha, Felix Hol­land, Julia­na Achi, Mar­co Cesta­roll­ti, Moreen Katu­sii­me, Paul Asiim­we, Phi­lip Mato­vu, Phi­lip Murun­gi, Robert Mugi­sha, San­dra Mudon­do, Vale­rie Rubombora

Anno 2021
Cre­di­ti Fotografici

Will Boa­se

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

The church is a long, nar­row and tall bar­­rel-vau­l­­ted volu­me; it is a direct refe­ren­ce to the archi­tec­tu­re of mona­stic chur­ches. As tra­di­tio­nal as the spa­ce is, its struc­tu­re has been sub­tly inver­ted; instead of solid mason­ry columns with win­do­ws in-bet­­ween, ‘columns of light’ seem to car­ry this church, con­nec­ted by arches made of strips of bric­k­work inter­sper­sed with glass bottles.
A light-weight, secon­da­ry tro­pi­cal roof hovers abo­ve the church, sha­ding and pro­tec­ting the buil­ding, col­lec­ting rai­n­wa­ter and pro­vi­ding spa­ce for pho­to­vol­taic panels. The rein­for­ced bric­k­work of the church that is embed­ded with glass bot­tles makes ‘light arches’ that direct sun­light into the church at mid­day. Light is played with fur­ther: sun cat­chers in the eastern wall are illu­mi­na­ted in the mor­nings of sol­sti­ce and equi­nox days and, a rose win­dow casts a cir­cu­lar spot of direct eve­ning light into the church during the late after­noon ser­vi­ces. The other three buil­dings in the mona­ste­ry are mode­st cour­tyard blocks. Incli­ned plin­ths made of stac­ked clay tile strips ele­va­te the­se buil­dings abo­ve swam­py wet-land sur­rounds below them. Abo­ve, the­re is a play bet­ween solid and per­fo­ra­ted brick walls, blur­ring the lines bet­ween walls and ope­nings. Towards the cour­tyard, wal­k­way roofs are sup­por­ted by load-bea­­ring per­fo­ra­ted brick screens of vary­ing sizes. Mate­rial wise, the desi­gn makes use of bricks sustai­na­bly fired with cof­fee husks. Using brick as a pri­ma­ry mate­rial fol­lo­ws the Cister­cian prin­ci­ple of ‘mate­rial only’ – the brick is avai­la­ble clo­se to site, ages well and is easy to hand­le. Buil­ding the church but­tres­ses in brick by gra­dual­ly increa­sing their thic­k­ness and depth towards the ground expo­sed the archi­tec­tu­ral expres­sion of exac­tly how the loads work. All new buil­dings are pas­si­ve­ly ven­ti­la­ted, with cross-ven­­ti­­la­­tion, ven­ti­la­ted cei­ling voids, reflec­ti­ve roo­fing mate­rial and sha­ded win­do­ws. This ensu­res a com­for­ta­ble indoor cli­ma­te throu­ghout the year. The land­sca­pe desi­gn forms sim­ple, con­tem­pla­ti­ve spa­ces which faci­li­ta­tes the life of medi­ta­tion and reflec­tion led by the monks. The cloi­ster gar­den is pure­ly inten­ded for obser­va­tion whil­st the cour­tyard in front of the church responds to the idea of trans­pa­ren­cy of the order at the same time as phy­si­cal­ly crea­ting a pro­tec­ti­ve bar­rier from the outsi­de world.

Rela­zio­ne illu­stra­ti­va del progetto
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Foto inter­ni

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