This tiny family chapel in rural Austria has a white concrete shell and glass gable walls, permitting views correct via the creating to the rolling countryside beyond .
Maria Magdalena is a private chapel that sits on the edge of a vineyard in Zollfeld, a gently sloping plain surrounded by hills in Austria’s southernmost state of Carinthia.
Graz-primarily based architect Gerhard Sacher – who runs Sacher LoCicero Architectes with Parisian architect Eric LoCicero – created the 27-square-metre framework as a tranquil area for contemplation, as effectively as for family members ceremonies and festivities.
Slabs of cast concrete kind the floor, pitched roof and side walls of the chapel, while its glazed gables give the developing a hollow visual appeal. The glass walls frame views of the vineyard and the forested slopes of close by hills.
A bronze cross by Czech artist Jaromír Gargulák stands in front of a single gable, whilst a pair of double doors that he also designed open from the other into a gravelled forecourt.
“The immaculate, smoothly formed white concrete provides this piece of architecture with a unique, artificial-like aesthetics and purity,” said Sacher.
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“You can’t pass the sculpture produced of white concrete without currently being impressed. If you stroll by, you will fall for the radiant white of the modern landmark and for its straightforward form language even if you are the most convinced agnostic.”
Narrow stained glass windows are set into vertical slots in the concrete flanks of the chapel. The edges of the window recesses are angled to help direct the rays of the morning and evening sun into the creating.
The multicoloured windows had been produced by nearby artist Karl-Heinz Simonitsch and depict scenes of creation taken from the book of Genesis.
“A town chapel has to exclude the outdoors planet to attain tranquillity,” explained the architect. “As a result, in most of the circumstances, the chapel walls have only a couple of openings. A chapel located in the open countryside already has the tranquillity per se, and consequently can be opened in the direction of the outside and profit from the interplay with the nature.”
Pale limestone flagstones cover the floor of the single space within. But the white concrete slabs are left exposed across the walls and ceiling.
This material is turning into increasingly well-known, with recent examples of its use such as a hilltop residence in Brazil and a garden oasis for the Milan Expo 2015.
Photograph by Gerhard Sacher
A statue of the chapel’s patron saint, Maria Magdalena, is displayed within a large niche in the wall, although urns are placed in a series of smaller nooks.
Photograph by Gerhard Sacher
White-washed oak benches fold down from the walls among the stainless glass windows to generate pews. A little raised platform is situated at the front of the chapel.
Photograph by Gerhard Sacher
Pendant lights with translucent cylindrical shades hang from the ridge of the ceiling, although spot lights sit in recesses beside the pews. This peripheral lighting frames the silhouette of the cross at night.
Photograph by Gerhard Sacher
“At dawn and at evening, the diffused light comes out of the chapel and falls on the forecourt and the close surroundings,” mentioned the architect. “Solely the cross in the chapel backyard enjoys a direct highlighted illumination and as a result turns into a component of the interior.”
Photography is by Paul Ott unless of course specified otherwise.
Project credits:
Architects: Gerhard Sacher, Sacher Locicero Architectes
Building company: Petautschnig Bau GmbH – Murau, Knafl&Co St:Veit a.d.Glan
Civil engineer: Pittino
Windows: Karl-Heinz Simonitsch
Internet site plan Dezeen
