The expansive landscape of Argentina’s Parque de la Cruz is the setting for this modest chapel by Estudio Cella, which is elevated above the tree canopy in a forest clearing .

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

Capilla Santa Ana is a single of number of buildings in the 57-hectare park – a main tourist attraction in Misiones province that boasts a huge statuesque iron cross, as effectively as waterfalls and a wide selection of bird species.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

Elevated 15 metres over the adjacent road, the chapel comprises a gabled volume with bright white walls that stand out amidst the greenery, plus a glazed finish wall providing views in the direction of the horizon.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

Estudio Cella – a local workplace led by architects Daniel Cella, Lucía Cella and Pedro Peralta – needed the design and style to include forms normal of religious architecture, but to also be appropriate for its setting.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

“The place of the chapel within the Parque de la Cruz de Santa Ana explains the challenge demanded from this undertaking: to develop a religious room inside a place of recreational and tourism,” explained Daniel Cella.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

By constructing on a raised internet site, the chapel could be detached from the road.


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Zigzagging ramps produce a processional technique walkway, leading up to an entrance that stands at the end of a huge balcony plaza – an arrangement that helps make it possible for ceremonies to spill outdoors.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

“The position of the balcony-atrium, higher above the main street, seeks to isolate the space from the tourist circuit, but also allows ceremonies to accommodate a better amount of faithful, compared with the interior capacity,” said Cella.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

“The entrance plaza, in addition to becoming an atrium, is itself a space for contemplation of the landscape,” he added.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

Walls of basalt stone run about the base of the slope. They also kind a plinth for the constructing, concealing a basement storey that includes the toilets, the sacristy and a present store.

In contrast, the gabled structure housing the congregation room above has a white-rendered roof and walls.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

The glazed finish wall is recessed, framed by planes that taper to develop the impression they are paper thin.

Inside, the chapel is lined with narrow timber slats that soften the acoustics, whilst also highlighting the transition among within and out.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

Wooden benches offer 9 rows of seating. A strip of lighting runs down the centre of the ceiling, and pivoting doors open the room out to the plaza.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

Beside the developing, a number of steel I-beams are organized in a cross shape to kind a bell tower that faces out towards the 82-metre-large iron cross on an opposite hill.

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

“The geometry originates from the double stress among the views of the cross and the connection with the court-side terrace,” explained Cella.

“When the chapel is noticed by far the contrast amongst supplies – basalt stone walls, white surround and wooden interior – emphasise its composition.”

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio Cella

The project is the most current in a series of chapels that have been unveiled above the final year, which includes a ribbon-like wedding chapel in Japan, a mountainside concrete structure in El Salvador and a V-shaped creating in China.

Photography is by Ramiro Sosa.


Venture credits:

Architects: Estudio Cella – Daniel Cella, Pedro Peralta, Lucia Cella
Collaborators: Sebastian Norennberg, Alejandro Aguirre
Structural engineering: Carlos A Perenson
Development: Hidrelco

Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio CellaSpot strategy and area Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio CellaWebsite strategy Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio CellaReduced ground floor Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio CellaUpper floor program Capilla Santa Ana by Estudio CellaSections and elevations Dezeen

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