Detail of the project ed. 2016

chapel-of-the-north-amer­i­­can-mar­­tyrs / Hod­getts + Fung

Design­er	Craig Hodgetts
Loca­tion	Sacra­men­to, California
Design Team	Archi­tect: Craig Hod­getts and Hsin­ming Fung Project Lead: Darin Vieira
Year	2014
Pho­to credits	File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Exte­ri­or Photos_1; Pho­to cred­it: Hod­getts + Fung, Joe Fletcher File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Exte­ri­or Photos_2; Pho­to cred­it: Hod­getts + Fung, Hod­getts + Fung, Joe Fletcher File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Exte­ri­or Photos_3; Pho­to cred­it: Hod­getts + Fung, Joe Fletch­er, Joe Fletcher File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Exte­ri­or Photos_4; Pho­to cred­it: Hod­getts + Fung File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Exte­ri­or Photos_5; Pho­to cred­it: Hod­getts + Fung File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Inte­ri­or Photos_1; Pho­to cred­it: Joe Fletch­er, Hod­getts + Fung, Hod­getts + Fung File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Inte­ri­or Photos_2; Pho­to cred­it: Joe Fletch­er, Hod­getts + Fung File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Inte­ri­or Photos_3; Pho­to cred­it: Hod­getts + Fung, Joe Fletcher File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Inte­ri­or Photos_4; Pho­to cred­it: Hod­getts + Fung File name: Jesuit High School Chapel _ Inte­ri­or Photos_5; Pho­to cred­it: Joe Fletcher

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

Posi­tioned as an icon­ic struc­ture that will greet stu­dents on their dai­ly arrival, the Chapel of the North Amer­i­can Mar­tyrs is meant to be a wel­com­ing pres­ence when approached from the cam­pus, and a sym­bol of spir­i­tu­al aspi­ra­tion from the near­by high­way. A focus on the spir­i­tu­al qual­i­ties of light, space, and pro­ces­sion led the archi­tects to a fun­da­men­tal recon­fig­u­ra­tion of tra­di­tion­al Catholic forms. Mod­est in size, with strong yet sim­ple geom­e­try, endur­ing mate­ri­als, and light-filled spaces, the Chapel pro­vides a mul­ti­va­lent icon for the cam­pus, and anchors a sym­bol­ic pro­gres­sion from dynam­ic cam­pus life to a more con­tem­pla­tive sacred space. 

The design is based on geo­met­ric prin­ci­ples dat­ing to the begin­nings of sacred archi­tec­ture. Arcs, axes, and align­ments have been care­ful­ly orches­trat­ed to cre­ate a sub­tle yet inevitable path towards the sanc­tu­ary, and from there, towards the altar. 

A sim­ple fold­ed plane pro­vides shel­ter. Braced by a thorny web of steel, the puri­ty of the sur­face is unbro­ken save for col­or­ful embossed recess­es to cap­ture nat­ur­al light. With­in, por­tals to the sanc­tu­ary spi­ral out between the curv­ing walls of a semi­cir­cu­lar ambu­la­to­ry, which itself is con­tained by a col­lage of translu­cent glass prisms that paint ever-chang­ing col­ors on the walls of the sanc­tu­ary. Tint­ed to refer to the sea­sons of Catholic litur­gy, and illu­mi­nat­ed by the course of the sun to cre­ate an atmos­phere of shad­ows, light, and litur­gi­cal mean­ing fit­ting for spir­i­tu­al awak­en­ing, their unique design was the result of numer­ous exper­i­men­tal mock-ups in order to assure us that the col­ors would be vis­i­ble from the exte­ri­or as well as being able to trans­mit col­ored light.

A sin­gle aper­ture in the roof pro­vides a pas­sage for the mount upon which the cross is held aloft, and cas­cades light along its sur­face into the sanc­tu­ary, thus lead­ing the eye of the parish­ioner upwards and out­wards to share the sky with the sim­ple, unaf­fect­ed cross.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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