In the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is located this magnificent building. The project is result of an organic combination of forms. It is cylindrical volume. The sequence of approaching begins with the pedestrian way direction until this solid and closed building. The exterior is simple and made up by an uniform color of brick.
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| @archdaily.com |
"Located at the heart of MITs campus, the chapel’s cylindrical form breaks the rigidity of the campus’s orthogonal grid."
www.archdaily.com
It is an introspective building, without windows at the uniform facade. That aspect is used to generates in the user a new perspective to what would happens on its interior.
The interior of the chapel represents an spaces for reflection. The material texture made the aspect of an old construction and also, generates a pretty interesting effect in the reflection of light.
The buildings has a natural illumination using a water mirror that reflects the light to the interior walls.
This make to the spaces a surrealistic place, where the illumination comes through an invisible part of the wall.
The uniform color has a contrast with the sculpture on the center of the chapel. In this point, the metal of the sculpture is dematerialized by a skylight. This center is located as the final of a spiritual travel that is created by the light/color effects in the interior of the chapel.
The building’s unique appearance was new to a campus that had previously employed a more classical architecture style. After some criticism, Saarinen explained that the chapel’s windowless cylinder “implied the self-contained, inward-feeling which was desirable” for a place of worship. He noted that its undulating interior walls promoted good acoustics as well as an “enclosed feeling.”"
MIT Campus Activities Complex
In Plan, there's possible to observed a cycle rhythm in the wall. This geometry is used to cause the interesting effects of lights in the interior. The circulation has a frontal direction. This dark interior spaces, also responses to the human scale, because was thinking to be a multi functional place, not just for one religion, more as a closed spaces out of the material world.
The material, and the design lets to the building a double skin that protect the interior to the sound out the building, this helps to make the effect of an introspective spaces.
There's some interesting videos about the chapel!
In the videos it looks the approaching and the articulation of the interior spaces
https://soundcloud.com/stefannif/the-chapel?in=stefannif/sets/final-project-id2126
