Visual harmony and aesthetic
Now, more than ever, interior design is a balance of form and function, a dialogue between architecture, materials and finishes that transform and make the most of the space involved.
Churches, and religious buildings in general, are atypical objects in the history of modern and contemporary architecture. Their program is generally straightforward (a space for ceremonies), and practical constraints are very limited (mostly concerning how to manage the flows of visitors entering, staying and leaving a single room). On the other hand, the symbolic dimension takes over, steering most functional and formal decisions, both during the design process and in the evaluation of the realized object.
It is precisely starting from several links to Catholic symbolism that the Church of Beatified Restituta, recently completed in Brno, Czech Republic, by Atelier Štěpán, can be better described. These include classical references, mostly based on basic geometries. The church itself is circular, meaning heaven and eternity, and its adds to the existing spiritual center, featuring a square plan, which means earth and transience. The complex is completed by the triangular bell tower.
The most striking element, though, is the uninterrupted, multicolor annular window, embracing the church just below the roof. A complex light, made of all the colors of a full rainbow, is diffused through the holy space, glowing over the several fair faced concrete surfaces – and some of them, such as the choirs, are surprisingly curvy.
In order to describe this device, Marek Štěpán has no hesitation in calling upon the metaphor of the “heaven over Brno”. A certain paradisiac atmosphere does permeate the Church of the Beatified Restituta. Yet, this is a contemporary paradise, eye-catching more than purely sublime, very instagrammable, and certainly closer to Olafur Eliasson’s Your Rainbow Panorama installation than to the kaleidoscopic stained glass windows of ancient cathedrals.
- Project:
- Church of Beatified Restituta
- Program:
- sacred building
- Location:
- Brno, Czech Republic
- Architects:
- Atelier Štěpán
- Principal architect Atelier Štěpán:
- Marek Jan Štěpán
- Collaborators:
- Vanda Štěpánová, František Brychta, Jan Vodička, Martin Kopecký
- Client:
- Roman Catholic Parish of Brno-Lesná
- Area:
- 3,000 sqm
- Completion:
- 2020
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