Ecumenical Chapel / BNKR Arquitectura

Architects: BNKR Arquitectura
Location: Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Partner In Charge: Esteban Suarez
Area: 170 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Jaime Navarro

Team Design: Emelio Barjau, Jaime Sol, Jorge Alcantar, Christian Morales, Gloria Castillo, Montserrat Escobar, Marcell Ibarrola, Fernando Maya, Marco Mayote, Daniel Aguilar
Structure: Juan Felipe Heredia, DAE
Mep: Sylvia Roman, MmasXpresiones
Lighting: Ricardo Noriegga, Santiago Bautista, NorieggaIluminadores
Mechanical Instalacions: Sylvia Roman, MmasXpresiones

From the architect. Some customers visited the Estancia Chapel and contacted us to make a private chapel on their weekend house at Cuernavaca. They wanted an Ecumenical Chapel, a non-religious chapel, a chapel to meditate.

They also liked the Estancia Chapel, but they wanted something more discreet, something they couldn’t seen from their house but they wanted to be spectacular at the same time. They didn’t referred to something “formally spectacular “, but rather, they wanted to feel something special when they were inside, something similar to the feeling of being in the Estancia or Sunset Chapel.

Now… If the Estancia Chapel celebrates life and Sunset Chapel regrets death, this third chapel to meditate would be the midpoint between life and death, the balance point, a journey into ourselves. We imagine a chapel buried, a lump in the ground. And in this process we include a vital element in our lives “Water”

By including a water mirror at ground level , from the house we only appreciate like an “intervention in the landscape ” a small stream in the garden. But when you get closer you can see a downwards ramp that surrounds the chapel. After the tour the chapel welcomes you with a beautiful Uglass entrance, then you get in to the central space. An oculus in the metal plate that allows us to see the outside through the water. A metal source with a large quartz in the center reflects the oculus on the floor.