Detail of the project ed. 2020

CHÉR­REZ Y CAN­TERA – THE SAJ URBAN CHAPEL OF ST IGNATIUS

Design­er	Xavier Chér­rez
Loca­tion	c/ Fran­cis­co Bergamín 32 — Pam­plona 31004 España
Design Team	Xavier Chér­rez y Raquel Cantera
Year	2014
Pho­to credits

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

Who wouldn’t want to feel embraced by God?
The his­to­ry of Sal­va­tion in many occa­sions is rep­re­sent­ed in the Bible, and in art his­to­ry sub­se­cuent­ly, through embraces, hugs….paternal, wel­com­ing, mater­nal hugs, hugs of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, of con­so­la­tion, of for­give­ness, of self-giv­ing , and of love.
“Par­adise, is God’s embrace” Pope Francis.
From a the­o­log­i­cal view­point this build­ing tends to three dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed dimensions.
First the dimen­sion of feel­ing “Allow for the cre­ator to direct­ly com­mu­ni­cate to the soul embrac­ing it in his love and praise” Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
At this chapel, in the sen­so­r­i­al plane one finds the feel of and the scent of wood, the sound of foot­steps over the stone pave­ment, ori­ent­ed towards a grow­ing lumi­nous back­ground, in a space con­formed to ele­vate us beyond our­selves. In this sen­so­r­i­al dimen­sion the chapel is a tem­ple that wants to be enjoyed by every­one; by peo­ple with pro­found, var­ied or lit­tle faith.

The for­mal anal­o­gy of an embrace con­fig­ures the inte­ri­or of this chapel with a wood­en struc­ture over the con­gre­ga­tion and the priest. From the entrance is per­ceived an increas­ing height, which descends with nat­ur­al light. These 7 wood­en frames land on the stone work and extend their pres­ence as bench­es to take in and touch the con­gre­ga­tion, accom­mo­dat­ing, and embrac­ing it; under an opened door in the sky (the heavens).

Then comes the dimen­sion of the Announce­ment, of the understanding.
The altar finds itself as the cen­ter of the chapel and the tem­ple is dis­trib­uted around it. In our case the engage­ment is not direct­ly visu­al, by means of images or sculp­tures or sym­bols cul­tur­al­ly assim­i­lat­ed or already known. It inter­pel­lates the mind of the priest and the assem­bly reveal­ing a, hid­den to untrained eye, sig­nif­i­cance and sym­bol­ism by means of num­bers, pro­por­tions and shapes. Mak­ing the build­ing itself com­mu­ni­cate the Glo­ry of God even through its joints.

Fac­ing the altar, the priest cel­e­brates sup­port­ed on 4 stone tiles (four Evan­ge­lists) and, like the assem­bly, sur­round­ed by the pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned embrac­ing 7 wood frames (sev­en sacra­ments), 7 doors in which, at their cen­ter, a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Vir­gin pre­sides, pray­ing, with a posi­tion in the chapel that allows her to wel­come every­body, under 3 large mir­rors of iden­ti­cal pro­por­tions (the Trin­i­ty) which dis­trib­utes the only, 1, source of direct light ( God the Father) which arrives through a great door opened to heav­en which cul­mi­nates the ascend­ing sec­tion of 12 wood­en slats, (apos­tles) which, as hor­i­zon­tal flames, intro­duce warm reflect­ed light (11, one is obscured, Judas).
Under, the rock, in the floor and divid­ed into a mul­ti­tude of joints whose lack of order rep­re­sents that char­ac­ter of human­i­ty that stays below; on top of the noble mate­r­i­al which stone is, noble but inert.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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