Description
Although the design is influenced by the extravagances of Venetian sacred architecture, the new chapel at the Catholic St Lawrence Cemetery is more akin to a fragile pavilion. Indeed, its perimeter resembles the outline of a guitar. However, only once one has visited the building is one aware how strongly the building builds on the history of the chapel as the centre of the cemetery. Not only its location and plan, but also the space and envelope of the chapel are inconceivable without this notion of continuity and transformation.
The chapel replaces its predecessor from 1963, which in turn replaced a neo-Gothic chapel from 1869. The building stands on a gravel plateau the shape of the footprint of the foundation walls of the first chapel. Three aspects of the new plan refer to the previous buildings: the open elliptical form, which adapts to fit two of the three original apses, the sliding entrance and exit, which lie in the central axis of the old chapel, and its floating roof plane, which echoes the square of the second chapel. The architects speak of the site as a “palimpsest”, inscribed over and over again without removing the traces of what was previously there.
The front, south-facing side of the chapel is marked by an 8 metre high steel “campanile” that stands to the right and projects through the roof. Whilst both the wall and roof exhibit a sometimes convex, sometimes concave wavy form, horizontal glass strips at the base and top of the wall, which allow light into the space inside, separate the two in such a way that each appears to float. The wall is like a wavy band. It is constructed of 18 load-bearing circular steel columns and a timber framework, clad on the outside with flat grey tin-plated copper strips.
The building has a height of 4.4 metres and a length of up to 16.5 metres. The roof sags towards the centre like a gold-coloured baldachin; the walls are plastered a smooth vibrant blue colour. Hand-written passages from the Requiem are inscribed in long lines around the walls. With its gold and blue colours, the space makes reference to the name of the chapel, as according to Catholic “colour theory”, gold is associated with the image of angels, blue with the image of Mary.
When both doors are open, a passageway passes through the centre of chapel, visually separating the two main spaces. These also serve different functions: the eastern part for the funeral congregation, the western part for the priests. The concrete altar and ambo and the oak catafalque are surrounded by a freestanding curved plane. The space behind this serves as a tiny sacristy. Tall steel candle holders stand all around. The candles are lit during the ceremony – as a result a column of smoke and light forms beneath the opening over the altar.
De Architect, no. 7/8/2001, pp. 58- | The Architectural Review, no. 11/ 2001, pp. 41- | L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, no. 337/2001, pp. 46- | Architektur Aktuell, no. 11/2002, p. 26 | Architektur und Wettbewerbe, no. 192/2002, cover, pp. 34- | Bilò, Federico: Mecanoo, Rome 2003, cover, pp. 136- | Bouw, no. 11/2001, pp. 44- | Deutsche Bauzeitung, no. 11/2001, p. 16 | Domus, no. 840/2001, p. 3 | GA Global Architecture Document, no. 65/2001, pp. 37- and no. 67/2001, pp. 60- | Groenendijk, Paul, Vollaard, Piet: Architectural Guide to the Netherlands 1900-2000, Rotterdam 2006, p. 471 | Heathcote, Edwin, Moffatt, Laura: Contemporary Church Architecture, Chichester 2007, pp. 104- | Hoogewoning, Anne (Ed. et al.): Architectuur in Nederland. Jaarboek 2001/2002, Rotterdam 2002, pp. 96- | Houben, Francine, Mecanoo Architects: Composition Contrast Complexity, Basel 2001, pp. 183-, p. 247 | Houben, Francine (et al.): En het eeuwige licht verlichte haar. R.K. Kapel Heilige Maria der Engelen, Rotterdam 2003 | Ibelings, Hans (Ed.): Architecten in Nederland. Van Cuypers tot Koolhaas, Amsterdam and Gent 2005, p. 197 | The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture, Comprehensive Edition, London 2004, p. 352 | Richardson, Phyllis: New Sacred Architecture, London 2004, pp. 48- | Techniques et Architecture, no. 459/2002, pp. 81- | Valle, Pietro: Mecanoo. Experimental Pragmatism, Milan 2007, pp. 130-, pp. 211-
Drawings
Site plan
Ground floor
Section looking west
Design sketches
Photos
Entrance façade of the chapel, “campanile” on the right
Passage between the entrance door on the left and the exit on the right, altar, ambo and catafalque in the background
Originally published in: Rudolf Stegers, Sacred Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2008.