Detail of the project ed. 2024

light-of-life-church / France

Design­er	Hyung Chul SHIN
Loca­tion	338–32 Bong­misanan-gil, Seo­rak-myeon, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeong­­gi-do, Corée du Sud
Nation	France
Design Team	Team lead­ers : Claire SHIN and Tchely SHIN Hyung-Chul. Archi­tec­ture local part­ner : IISAC
Year	2014
Pho­to credits	com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 1 : pho­to shinslab architecture com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 2 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 3 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 4 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 5 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 6 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 7 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 8 : pho­to Lee Dong-Hwan com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 9 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook com­po MMC A3 PHO­TO 10 : pho­to Jin Hyo-Sook

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

The Light of Life Chapel in South Korea, a short dis­tance from Seoul, pro­vides a haven for spir­i­tu­al reflec­tion. Built for retired mis­sion­ar­ies, it wel­comes vis­i­tors dai­ly for prayer and contemplation.

The chapel’s design beau­ti­ful­ly inte­grates with the sur­round­ing moun­tains. Its exte­ri­or, con­struct­ed with reflec­tive glass and poly­car­bon­ate, offers a sense of light­ness and trans­paren­cy. Step­ping inside, the vis­i­tor encoun­ters a strik­ing hemi­spher­i­cal dome. This dome, craft­ed from ver­ti­cal Siber­ian red cedar logs, embod­ies both the nat­ur­al world and the divine. Light fil­ters through the wood, tak­ing on a unique character.

The cir­cu­lar lay­out reflects Protes­tant val­ues of equal­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty. A sin­gle, del­i­cate cross stands in a cen­tral pool, sym­bol­iz­ing bap­tism and spir­i­tu­al jour­neys. While hon­or­ing Protes­tant tra­di­tions, the archi­tects sought to evoke spir­i­tu­al emo­tions through sub­tle sym­bol­ism. The Light of Life Chapel stands as a tes­ta­ment to the con­ver­gence of nature, archi­tec­ture, and faith.

Explana­to­ry report of the project
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

BACK TO PROJECTS PAGE