Non-Denominational Chapel on FSC

Project Three: Non-Denominational Chapel on the Campus of Farmingdale State College

Program

You have been selected to design a proposed non-denominational chapel located on the campus of SUNY Farmingdale. The college wants this to be a profoundly spiritual place that people of all faiths can worship and reflect on life's events. The college believes this can be achieved by the creative use of light. The college has outlined a preliminary program that is listed below. A site has yet to be selected on campus. The college is looking for guidance from the architect. The building should be integrated into the fabric of the campus. The college explicitly requests the design not be symmetrical.

Requirements

Chapel

Main Sanctuary; 50 people
Memorial Side Chapel
Meditation Side Chapel
Lobby
Storage
Possible Outdoor Chapel using one of the exterior walls
Toilets

Offices

Secretary Office
Clergy's Office
Small Library and Conference Room

Contexual Analysis Slideshow

Vehicle & Pedestrian Circulation

Light Research: Kimbell Museum

Light Machines

Narrative

Farmingdale State College wants a non denominational church built on the campus where the architect controls the natural light allowed into its chapels. The construction of the roofs and walls must be designed strategically to light the rooms in creative ways with the use of curved walls and openings, maintaining the light doesn't spill onto the floor. The site and orientation of the church will reflect the design of the three chapels.

Rank

1. Main Chapel

2. Memorial Chapel

3. Meditation Chapel

4. Lobby

Sorting

The church site was designated just southeast of the ellipse on campus. I decided to put it there because that area of the campus had the space, the existing paths, and the orientation I wanted. The three chapels will face southeast, so the light east to west can be controlled by the light mechanisms via the time of day and season.

Church Site

Plan View

Conceptual Analysis

The Memorial Chapel will sit farthest east and will see the morning sun first. The scalloped roof waves grab morning light and directs it into an angular vessel that hangs below the ceiling. The vessel redirects the light out toward the walls instead of down. The back wall has three openings that take additional light, but another set of structured walls angle this light upward to the ceiling.

The main chapel is the largest, most important chapel and will situate south. It will be oval shaped and have a tilted roof with three large slits that will allow the late-morning/afternoon light to filter through and around curved arches that suspend below. That will direct light to cascade off the walls instead of fall to the floor. The straight east-facing wall will contain a series of narrower vertical slits. The light entering here will hit a large inner circular wall that will redirect the light back against the curved main walls creating a tapering spillway of indirect illumination. The third lighting mechanism in this main chapel is the undulating series of reverse facing half-circles that again forces light to bend around curves before entering the room. The outer circles do not have a roof slab over them; instead a thin perforated polycarbonate ceiling allows slits of light to pour straight down, but only illuminate the outside chambers shaft, not the main floor of the chapel.

The meditation chapel takes the late afternoon rays. It was designed with louvered flaps that reach out for the western light ushering it softly into the room and against the walls. The roof also has louvered boxes that direct the setting sun into another curved fixture and up toward the ceiling.

The church's thick tapered datum wall uses frontality along the straight path to define itself and its orientation.