Detail of the project ed. 2020

FCC ARQUI­TEC­TURA – NOS­SA SEN­HO­RA DE FATI­MA CHURCH

Design­er	Fer­nan­do Coel­ho + Ana Loureiro
Loca­tion	Rua de S. Verís­si­mo, 4610–423 Lagares Felgueiras, PORTUGAL
Design Team	FCC Arqui­tec­tura Fer­nan­do Coel­ho, Ana Loureiro, Sér­gio Sil­va, Luís Vieira, Diana Teixeira
Year	2019
Pho­to credits	Fer­nan­do Guer­ra — FG + SG

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

Design­ing a church seems to us to be an ide­al instru­ment in search­ing for a sym­bol­ic, mys­ti­cal and expres­sive dimen­sion. As His­to­ry has taught us, the alliance between art and reli­gion offers mankind unique, mag­i­cal and exalt­ing moments that enrich life, mind and soul.
The church, as a mate­r­i­al con­struc­tion and human rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Divine, plays a very impor­tant role in the devel­op­ment of sen­si­bil­i­ty. For believ­ers and lay peo­ple, it is a liv­ing sign that con­veys a tran­scen­dent mean­ing that makes us look beyond what we see, and take time to feel our lives at a deep­er level.
The first impres­sions and ideas emerged in the first vis­it to the field. The traits and forms were cleared, sup­port­ed by sym­bols that seemed impor­tant, expres­sive and appro­pri­ate to our inten­tions. The curved line was imposed from the begin­ning, as a ges­ture and as a form asso­ci­at­ed with recep­tion and protection.

The shape of the fish, such a strong image for the Catholic reli­gion and sym­bol of Jesus Christ the Savior.

The drop, the water. Sym­bol of purifi­ca­tion and bless­ing, it is asso­ci­at­ed with the rit­u­al of ini­ti­a­tion in the Chris­t­ian life (bap­tism).
The con­ven­tion­al trac­ing, scheme of the axi­al plant so char­ac­ter­is­tic of clas­sic Chris­t­ian church­es. The curved shape like the head of the church that is your body.

The streets that bor­der the ter­rain have steep slopes. The church sits on an inter­me­di­ate platform.
Two curv­ing walls, almost com­plete­ly loose from the ground, direct peo­ple to the main entrance of the church. The lay­out of these walls was con­di­tioned by key land­marks inside the build­ing: they will pass over the bap­tis­tery, the taber­na­cle, and the altar, thus form­ing the direc­tives of space.

This project drew on care­ful­ly select­ed mate­ri­als fit for the intend­ed pur­pose, focused on qual­i­ty and func­tion­al­i­ty, but also longevi­ty, and on high­light­ing the full poten­tial of the spaces over time.
All the mate­r­i­al com­po­si­tion of tex­tures and col­ors por­tray har­mo­nious inte­gra­tion, which trans­lates into com­fort­able and clas­sic aesthetics.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

BACK TO PROJECTS PAGE