Contemplative, meditation-focused spaces are becoming a mainstay in the complex fabrics of our cities, homes and workplaces. And these spaces have moved well beyond the constricting “memorial”, “religious”, “tributary” purposes they once clung to. The design of many such spaces now speak to personal and community wellbeing, in physical, mental and emotional forms.
Nestled in a woodland garden oasis on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore, a series of 10 chapels by 10 architects makes up the Vatican’s first entrance into the Venice Architecture Bienniale.
The 10 chapels are joined by the Asplund Pavilion, an 11thstructure serving as a prelude to the subsequent chapels and inspired by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund’s 1920 Woodland Chapelin Stockholm, created nearly a century ago. Together, they create the Pavilion of the Holy See, reflective of Asplund’s chapel typology as “a place of orientation, encounter, meditation and salutation.” [TheHoly Seeis the universal government of the Catholic Church, operating from Vatican City State as the sovereign, independent territory.]
Each chapel, designed by architects from Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom, the United States and Japan, and including two Pritzker Prize winners (Norman Foster and Eduardo Souto de Moura), presents a distinctive interpretation of Asplund’s original Woodland Chapel. The 10 chapels, a nod to theTen Commandments, are already complete and finished structures, and will be relocated to sites around the globe after the Bienniale.
The project, curated by Professor Francesco Dal Co, brings together many influential voices to seek out and examine what a meditative space can look like and how it feels. And the new spaces show that there are many right answers.
“A visit to the ten Vatican Chapels is a sort of pilgrimage that is not only religious but also secular,” said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President, Pontifical Council for Culture, in a press announcement. “It is a path for all who wish to rediscover beauty, silence, the interior and transcendent voice, the human fraternity of being together in the assembly of people, and the loneliness of the woodland where one can experience the rustle of nature which is like a cosmic temple.”
Visitors to the 16thVenice Architecture Bienniale, running from May 24 to November 25, can travel to the island and make their way to the Asplund Pavilion, the first structure and introduction to the installation, designed by architects Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel of MAP Studio and based on traditional wooden Scandinavian stave churches. The Asplund Pavilion’s interior hosts an exhibition of original drawings, documents and models by Gunnar Asplund for the Woodland Chapel. The exterior architecture sets the tone for rest of the journey through the Pavilion of the Holy See.
“The architectural structure– with a length of about 11 and a height of 8 meters – is organized as a prismatic form similar to that of a crystal, and entirely clad in ALPIwood,” an announcement by ALPI notes.“The company has developed an experimental material used for the external facings of the construction, made with 9000 wood shingles that enhance the external image of the building; the interior is completely faced in ALPI Xilo 2.0 Striped White, developed in collaboration with Piero Lissoni, to create a muted, intimate atmosphere.”
“The surfaces we have produced for this project, both outside and inside, are very different from each other; the characteristics of each are enhanced in their juxtaposition,” said Vittorio Alpi, ALPI founder’s grandson and now president, in an ALPI press announcement. “While for the interior the architects Magnani and Pelzel have chosen one of our most successful Xilo woods, for the exterior they asked me to create a completely new product: dark gray shingles, “like a dragon’s skin,” as Francesco Magnani so effectively puts it.”
2018 is the 16thedition of the Venice Architecture Bienniale, with 63 countries participating. To view additional photos of all of the 11 chapels included in the Pavilion of the Holy See, visit archdaily.com. And if you’re in or near the region during the Bienniale, add the Pavilion of the Holy See to your visit.