Air Force Village Chapel

This proposal for the Air Force Village Chapel competition is composed of four independent pavilions that are similarly unified in purpose and common goals. The design satisfies the need for communal worship while at the same time providing places for independent contemplation and inspiration. The design concept begins with an investigation of the threshold; the passage from the outer, secular realm of everyday lives to an inner, sacred space that is the place for individual devotion and communal worship. Traditionally, this threshold is not much thicker than the door above it: here we see this passageway as an expansive garden with the chapel at its center. The path through the garden makes us aware that we’re entering a special place, one where the quotidian gives way to the divine. The chapel is conceived of as a series of pavilions; their spaces designed to give the feeling of clearings in a forest, of calm amidst the unknown. Protected and uplifting, these rooms are defined by the densely planted, indigenous southern Texas landscaping surrounding them. The garden – the threshold – mediates between the secular realm and sacred one. All the pavilions – the Narthex, the Sanctuary, the Multi-Faith Chapel and the Blessed Sacrament – will have glass walls and be set directly into the lush, densely planted landscape, drawing nature into the sphere of the divine. The slim, steel columns that support the roofs will echo the trees outside. The ceilings and roof are composed of cloud-like transparent membranes that will filter daylight and in the evening, when lit from within, have the glow of a lantern.