Detail of the project ed. 2024

eglise-saint-joseph-saint-josephs-church / France

Design­er	Math­ieu CHAZELLE — Simon PAL­LU­BIC­KI — Brice PIECHACZYK
Loca­tion	53 Rue de la République 95370 Montigny-lès-Cormeilles
Nation	France
Design Team	Math­ieu CHAZELLE, Simon PAL­LU­BIC­KI, Brice PIECHACZYK
Year	2019
Pho­to credits	©Epail­lard + Machado

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

A SIM­PLE AND SUS­TAIN­ABLE CONSTRUCTION

St. Joseph’s Church is a Catholic place of wor­ship with a mod­u­lar capac­i­ty of 200 to 400 places, com­plete with reli­gious edu­ca­tion rooms, sec­ondary halls for cel­e­bra­tions, as well as staff accommodation.

The archi­tec­tur­al design of this place is sim­ple but recog­nis­able. This sim­plic­i­ty express­es an abstrac­tion: two rec­tan­gles meet­ing at the cor­ner, pre­cise­ly; but also, a sig­ni­fi­er, the stone ris­ing to open the sepul­chre. Above, ver­ti­cal lines of colour project the light from with­in at night time. The build­ing enve­lope, craft­ed with sobri­ety and pre­ci­sion, con­veys the pub­lic and the reli­gious char­ac­ter of the build­ing. A lim­it­ed palette of mate­ri­als — light-coloured glass, wood, light-coloured con­crete brick, stained glass — gives a cer­tain time­less abstrac­tion to the vol­u­met­ric com­po­si­tion and rein­forces the sym­bol­ism of the building.

On the south facade, a dou­ble skin light fil­ter­ing device ensures opti­mal and reg­u­lat­ed light dif­fu­sion while lim­it­ing heat trans­fers. The per­cep­tion of its sur­face varies with the light­ing con­di­tion. The façade serves as a sig­nal for the build­ing from the street.
On the East façade, the pro­gres­sion of the wor­ship­per in the narthex is punc­tu­at­ed by a few reg­u­lar­ly spaced slits. The open­ings pierce through a wood screen, rem­i­nis­cent of the main door and high­light­ing the ded­i­cat­ed space of worship.

The archi­tec­tur­al com­po­si­tion fur­ther uses the alter­nat­ing opaque sur­faces – made of con­crete walls, air gap, exter­nal insu­la­tion, con­crete brick fac­ing and wood strips — to lim­it ther­mal bridges.

SPACE MOD­U­LAT­ED BY LIGHT – INTE­GRA­TION OF ART

Inside the church, the light is mod­u­lat­ed to accom­pa­ny the hier­ar­chy of spaces. Through archi­tec­tur­al devices, the sec­tions of “mat­ter” seem to float away from each oth­er, pushed away by the light that comes in, always trans­fig­ured. The ceil­ing does not touch the walls because the light must pass through, the choir wall stops because the light is there. The ceil­ing is pierced by sky­lights, one above the altar, one above the bap­tis­tery. The walls are lined with 14 open­ings, the pro­ces­sion­al Way of the Cross of light. This light is there to infuse the wor­ship­per, both inspir­ing and warm­ing. The wide stained-glass win­dow express­es the “Space of Glo­ry” which extends the mys­ti­cal and gath­er­ing spaces towards the heav­ens. It realis­es the final trans­for­ma­tion of light into the expres­sion of the spir­i­tu­al atmosphere.

The space artic­u­lates a con­tra­dic­tion: the church is a pub­lic space and a mys­ti­cal space. The space of con­gre­ga­tion is cov­ered with wood to wel­come the com­mu­ni­ty of Mon­tigny in all its diver­si­ty. The back of the nave opens onto the gar­den, extend­ing the space towards the city.

For the real­i­sa­tion of the fur­ni­ture and stained-glass win­dows of this project, enia col­lab­o­rat­ed with a team of crafts­men and artists expe­ri­enced in work­ing with noble mate­ri­als. The artist Thier­ry Bois­sel used an inno­v­a­tive tech­nique of frit­ted glass to cre­ate the stained-glass win­dow that express­es the “Space of Glo­ry” that com­ple­ments the mys­ti­cal gath­er­ing space.

Explana­to­ry report of the project
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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