Sacred places in quiet forests
THE Vatican is “planting” 10 chapels in the woods of one of Venice’s lagoon islands for its first-ever contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale (May 26 to Nov 25) in Italy.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture minister, unveiled plans for Vatican
Chapels recently, saying the project was inspired by the Woodland Chapel at Stockholm’s Woodland Cemetery by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund (1885–1940).
Ravasi has frequently condemned modern churches as ugly and inhospitable to prayer. He’s hoping the Vatican Chapels installation will help re-establish a dialogue between the sacred and architecture, which over centuries created majestic churches and cathedrals that changed public spaces around the globe.
The Vatican spent 400,000 (RM1.9mil) on the project and solicited designs from 10 architects – only two of them women – as well as contributions from construction firms to defray the costs. The architects are from Australia, Britain, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and the United States; the biggest name in the group is Norman Foster, the Pritzker Prize-winning British architect. (The Pritzker Prize is considered the Oscars of the architecture world.)
The brief was to reflect on Asplund’s idea of a chapel as “a place of orientation, encounter, meditation and salutation” in designing the space. Additionally, the architects were challenged to create designs that could be reconstructed elsewhere, allowing the Vatican to transport the chapels after the Biennale to areas in need of houses of worship.
Ravasi says that the Vatican didn’t want to offer a traditional pavilion with miniature models and designs for its inaugural contribution. Rather, the Vatican decided to create an itinerary that will take visitors on a “pilgrimage” around the 10 unconsecrated chapels planted in the forest of San Giorgio island, located in the Venice lagoon opposite the world-renowned St Mark’s Square.
Ravasi says the significance of the woods was key given the tradition of forests “as a place of silence, meditation, shade and light”.
The curator for the project, Venetian architectural historian Francesco Dal Co, says no common theme unites the chapels, though they all have a pulpit and an altar. They’re made of a host of different materials: wood, steel, iron, cement and ceramic. – Agencies
For more information on the Venice Architecture Biennale, which will take place from May 26 to Nov 25 in Italy, go to tinyurl.com/star2-vatican.