CHAPEL SAINTS FRANCIS AND CATHERINE IN ROME

The chapel located within the Foundation Service Center, represents an important junction and reference point for the entire complex: it constitutes a spiritual ‘landing place’ in which to find a space for recollection and personal prayer, where to spend a moment of pause between daily activities and where to celebrate religious services for small groups. The plurality of use requires setting up the small space in an accomplished way, in spatial definition and in the quality of liturgical signs. The idea of centrality that emerges from the arrangement is manifested not so much at the geometric level as focal, in the visual axiality generated by the diagonal of the hall, along which the ambo, altar and cross are arranged in succession, creating a dialectical relationship between the poles. The faithful are arranged around the poles of the liturgy, enveloping the heart of the celebration and reinforcing its image as a gathered assembly. The stained glass window toward the foyer also allows the center of the scene to be framed from the space outside the chapel, while the stained glass window toward the patio allows a contemplative gaze toward the small garden. The upper artistic stained glass window creates both a figurative and a spiritual and intimate relationship with natural light. The poles of the liturgy are united by an identity of language that makes them appear as sculpted elements in the round, whose material expression either manifests itself at the center of the scene (altar and ambo), or seems to emerge directly from the wall surfaces (case and statue of the Virgin).