Description

In La Défense, where millions of square metres of office space have been pressed into a variety of forms since the fifties, the church is the smallest building. It stands at the edge of the gigantic esplanade of the Grande Arche and is enclosed on three sides by the arching form of the Centre National des Industries et Techniques (CNIT) to the northwest, a wing of an office building to the southwest and the entrance and exit of a road tunnel to the northeast.

The church rests on 63 slender pile foundations and six 1.2 metre thick concrete columns. For the most part, the building takes the form of a cube made of concrete, steel and glass. Its lower and middle floors are used for gatherings and administration, the upper floor for the church service. Entrances to the building are located at the middle level from the esplanade and at the upper level via an external stair on the northwest side of the building. On the landing of this stair, visitors turning to the right pass through a matt shimmering construction some 36.4 metres high and 19 metres wide, but only 80 centimetres deep. Constructed as a steel framework clad in laminated glass, it is articulated as a plane that appears to float freely in front of the cube of the building. For several reasons, it lends the architecture a singular quality: the same form appears at once like a door leaf, a screen and a tower; it picks up and transforms the monotone and monochrome, the transparent and translucent of the surroundings; and lastly it marks the church with the sign of the cross.

The hall for church services is buried deep within the building. The feeling of an enclave results not just because it is located on the uppermost of three storeys, but also because it affords no views from outside inwards or from inside outwards. The room measures 15.8 by 13.5 metres. The double layer of the whitish, glazed northeast wall protects the room in such a way that one hears and sees nothing of the hectic whirr of urban life outside. A black metal sculpture by Jacques Loire appears to grow out of the wall like a tree of life. The central objects of the liturgy are arranged along a single axis, the altar on the northeast wall, the ambo on the southwest wall and the baptistry as a basin in the floor, directly in the centre of the room. Approximately 300 chairs made of oak are arranged to the left and the right of the axis. The seat of each of the chairs can be flipped over to one side to meet the neighbouring chair, effectively doubling the capacity when required.

The Church of Our Lady of the Pentecost deliberately avoids competing with the “ever larger” buildings of the surroundings. Nevertheless, its architecture – through its signalling presence and its cross – still makes a strong gesture within its context. The space of the church itself is a room for peace and congregation. In addition, the positioning of the liturgical elements and seating subscribes to the newer ideal of the Communio, which as yet has been realised in only a few churches.

The American Institute of Architects (Ed.): 2002 DuPont Benedictus Awards, Washington D.C. 2002, pp. 23- | L’Arca, no. 183/2003, cover, pp. 22- | Architecture Intérieure Créé, no. 283/1998, pp. 78- and no. 299/2001, pp. 102- | Ayers, Andrew: The Architecture of Paris. An Architectural Guide, Stuttgart and London 2004, p. 311 | Bauwelt, no. 8/1997, p. 335 and no. 4/2003, p. 8- | Les Cahiers Techniques du Bâtiment, no. 219/2001, pp. 23- | Chroniques d’Art Sacré, no. 64/2000, pp. 22- | Laminated Glass News, no. 21/2002, p. 1 | Martin, Hervé: Guide de l’Architecture Moderne à Paris, Paris 1996, p. 303 | Le Monde, 22. 2. 2001, p. 29 | AMC Le Moniteur Architecture, no. 116/2001, pp. 57- | The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture, Comprehensive Edition, London 2004, p. 375 | Roberts, Nicholas W.: Building Type Basics for Places of Worship, Hoboken / New Jersey 2004, p. 227 | Stock, Wolfgang Jean (Ed.): European Church Architecture 1950-2000, Munich 2002, p. 11 | Stock, Wolfgang Jean: Architectural Guide Sacred Buildings in Europe since 1950, Munich 2004, pp. 184- | Techniques et Architecture, no. 459/2002, pp. 42- | 1000 x European Architecture, (n.p.) Berlin 2007, p. 257

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Originally published in: Rudolf Stegers, Sacred Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2008.