Detail of the project ed. 2024

3‑chapels-3-coun­tries / Austria

Design­er	Ger­hard Sach­er, Eric Locicero
Loca­tion	Aus­tria, Chapel Maria Mag­dale­na, Zollfeld 2014/ Ger­many, Chapel Ruhe­wald Schloss Tam­bach, Weitrams­dorf 2018/ Slo­va­kia, Chapel Saint Char­bel, Nitra 2022 in progress
Nation	Aus­tria
Design Team	Ger­hard Sacher Eric Locicero
Year	2014
Pho­to credits	Chapel Maria Mag­dale­na — Paul Ott, Graz Austria Chapel Ruhe­wald Schloss Tam­bach — Sebas­t­ian Kolm, Coburg Germany

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

3 Chapels / 3 Countries

The com­mon ele­ment of the 3 chapels in 3 coun­tries is that they have the same pro­por­tions. This pro­por­tion goes back to the Vit­ru­vian Man. Vit­ru­vius puts the the­o­ry of the “well-formed human” with an ide­al rela­tion­ship of the body parts to each oth­er on the “gold­en ratio”. All 3 chapels have the same dimen­sions, 7.75m high, 1.75m long and 4.79m wide. The shape and mate­r­i­al are dif­fer­ent and relate to the loca­tion or the pur­pose of the chapel.

Chapel “Maria Mag­dale­na” – Aus­tria 2014

The fam­i­ly chapel, erect­ed on the gen­tly rolling foothills of the Zollfeld, at first glance presents itself as a sol­id embod­i­ment of fun­da­men­tal qual­i­ties. It stands there, vis­i­ble from afar: a chalky white sym­bol set in the easel paint­ing of the Carinthi­an land­scape. The seri­ous and sharp-edged build­ing with­out any capri­cious­ness or back­ground sounds from the reper­toire of approach­es that might, in prin­ci­ple, be con­ceiv­able. Like a sym­bol of archi­tec­ture it con­dens­es the basic ele­ments of build­ing to pro­duce a stun­ning­ly con­vinc­ing expres­sion. When you open the two leaves of the mighty door in the west side the chapel becomes a sculp­tur­al neg­a­tive form. This cross sec­tion become build­ing then tran­scends the essence of the domes­tic into the essence of the sacred. Not least impor­tant­ly – the pro­por­tions of the build­ing. Evert­ing, even the fold­ing bench­es set ver­ti­cal­ly flush in the walls, is aware of how to con­tribute as a part to the greater whole and fol­lows the rule of the Gold­en Section.

Chapel “Ruhe­wald Schloss Tam­bach” – Ger­many 2018

Tam­bach Cas­tle, whose own­er Hein­rich Graf zu Orten­burg runs the “Ruhe­wald Schloss Tam­bach”, is embed­ded in the gen­tly hilly land­scape near the town of Coburg. The for­est ceme­tery offers peo­ple to find their final rest­ing place in the nature of the for­est. The tree pop­u­la­tion of the for­est ceme­tery has a land­s­capepark-like char­ac­ter. In its clear form, the chapel fol­lows the pro­por­tions of the Gold­en Sec­tion accord­ing to the teach­ings of the “Vit­ru­vian Man” by Leonar­do da Vin­ci. It should con­vey sim­plic­i­ty and open­ness and offer vis­i­tors and their sur­vivors a pro­tec­tive cov­er. Sev­en wood­en arch­es ris­ing upwards form the inner space. The out­er cladding con­sists of split larch wood shin­gles which will fuse with the envi­ron­ment over the years due to nat­ur­al weath­er­ing. The chapel “Ruhe­wald Schloss Tam­bach” fus­es high con­cepts and sophis­ti­cat­ed mate­ri­als in its design, and yet it is a very gen­tle, wel­com­ing build­ing that per­fect­ly suits its pur­pose: small-scaled enough to com­fort the peo­ple who vis­it it, soar­ing enough in its form to evoke the divine.

Chapel “Saint Char­bel ” – Slowakia 2022 in progress

In the vicin­i­ty of the bish­op’s town of Nitra, a chapel is to be built in hon­or of St. Char­bel Mark­louf. He was a Maronite monk and priest from Lebanon. Dur­ing his life, he obtained a wide rep­u­ta­tion for holi­ness, and for his abil­i­ty to unite Chris­tians and Mus­lims. He worked in the vine­yards and gar­dens of the monastery and there devot­ed him­self to prayer and con­tem­pla­tion in silence and the strictest asceti­cism until his death. After the death of St. Char­bel, his tomb began to appear in an extra­or­di­nary splen­dor. Only after 45 days did the light become weak­er. The shape of the chapel derives from the only por­trait of Saint Char­bel, in which he can be seen with a “cap­pa”. This form of the “cap­pa” resem­bles a para­ble sym­bol­iz­ing the over­com­ing of grav­i­ty and the detach­ment from the earth. As in lit­er­a­ture, the deriva­tion of the para­ble is intend­ed to make the vis­i­tor think and come to a conclusion

Explana­to­ry report of the project
Down­load report

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Tech­ni­cal drawings

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