Detail of the project ed. 2016

capela-imac­u­la­­da / Cere­jeira Fontes Architects

Design­er  Anto­nio Jorge de Moura Cere­jeira Fontes
Loca­tion  Bra­ga, Portugal
Design Team  

António Jorge de Moura Leitão Cere­jeira Fontes
André de Moura Leitão Cere­jeira Fontes
Asb­jörn Andresen
Lisa Sigfridsson
Joaquim Félix
António Dias
Orlan­do Rodrigues
Bruno Marques
Nuno Cruz
Duarte Vilaça

Year  2015
Pho­to credits  

Joaquim Félix

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

The Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion is with­in the Sem­i­nary of Our Lady of Con­cep­tion, locat­ed in Rua de S. Domin­gos, Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Braga.
The pro­pos­al focused on the reha­bil­i­ta­tion and restora­tion of the chapel, the recon­struc­tion of the choir.
For this restau­ra­tion, total height of space was regained by using the walls of the pre-exist­ing lim­its of the chapel.
The walls sur­round­ing the chapel were left stripped reveal­ing the exist­ing stone which would now be view­able. To accen­tu­ate the height of the space a new con­crete dome with a thick­ness of 12cm was sus­pend­ed on a steel struc­ture with open­ings that manip­u­late the exte­ri­or light.
The exist­ing roof was replaced with acoustic met­al pan­els that increased the sound qual­i­ty along with the con­crete dome that enables bet­ter per­for­mance, ris­ing and echo­ing the chants and prayers. This acoustic per­for­mance brings anoth­er lev­el of spa­tial inter­pre­ta­tion that allow­ing the space to man­i­fest the sound and cre­at­ing a dia­logue between space and the user.
There is a tear in the alter wall cov­ered with a translu­cent mar­ble pan­el that lights the gran­ite alter sus­pend­ed over a pool of water. The alter becomes a divine ele­ment that hangs in the sacred space.
The choir replaced by a tim­ber struc­ture, con­sist­ing of sev­er­al wood columns cre­at­ing a for­est at the entrance of this sacred space. This for­est cre­ates a reserved space ded­i­cat­ed to the inhab­i­tants of the Seminary.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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