Slideshow: Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut – by Le Corbusier – Ronchamp, France

For a lengthy description of this icon of 20th century architecture read this article, previously posted on talkitect.com:
http://www.talkitect.com/2009/11/notre-dame-du-haut-ronchamp-france.html

Slideshow: Corbuhaus – Berlin, Germany

This is the first installment of a new feature I will be posting to Talkitect – Slideshows of interesting architecture and significant buildings I have visited on my travels around the world. The idea is from now on, a new slide show will be posted every Monday Morning. It is fitting to start with a building in Berlin, the city I currently call home, designed by one of the masters of 20th Century architecture, Le Corbusier. Feel free to link to or use images from this and future slide shows, but please credit and link to this site. Thanks and I hope you enjoy.

Notre Dame du Haut – Ronchamp, France

For such a vaunted idol of modern architecture, designed by a deity of the architectural designers of the 20th century, visiting the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in the tiny town of Ronchamp, France was a serene and beautiful experience. Designed by Le Corbusier in 1956, the chapel lies on a picturesque hill high over the quaint town, offering stunning views of the rolling countryside. A small road winds its way through the wooded slopes and deposits you at a somewhat run down visitors center, with the chapel hidden from view by trees and hedges and a short walk further up the hill. As you follow the pathway, glimpses of the whitewashed walles and infamous concrete roof appear between the foliage. You round a bend, the hedges end, and the smaller than expected edifice stands before you, rising out of a pristine grass clearing.

It is difficult to describe the building other than to say it is different, and more magnificent than any of the many photographs and writings about the building we have all seen. The photographs make it look more imposing, lack the scale of the place. Rather it is a modest sized building, quietly resting in it’s perch, gazing out over the landscape. It shows Le Corbusier’s talents and fitting his buildings into the greater landscape, an aspect of his work that is often overlooked. He was a master at manipulating the fluidity of concrete, and the subtleties of natural light. But he also had an instinctive connection between building and nature, one which gets lost when looking at his high rise housing blocks raised over the land on pilotis. This church felt like it belonged to the site, enhancing the surroundings and relating the clouds passing above and rolling hills below.

Slowly walking around the building revealed elements of the design, and details that I had never seen in the extensive coverage of Corbusier’s work in my architectural education. The celebration of rainwater collection on the immense roof, becomes a sculptural water sprout feeding a basin made of sculptural forms rendered in concrete. The light towers, hidden from view in the most common photo of the building, echo each other and frame the secondary, but only open entrance to the interior. External stairs cantilever off the side and animate one of the facades. Tiny dark gashes in the bright white monolith hint at the experience of the dark interior pierced by carefully controlled streams of natural light.

Another Facade, offers a platform protected by the cantilevered roof, containing the facilities to run an outdoor service. The podium for the sermon, the table for the holy relics and place for people to take communion become sculptures carved out of the thick walls or rising out of the concrete floor. Each is a work of art, adding interest to the building until they are called into duty when a summer service is required.

Walking into the interior transports you into a different world. The sunny summer day dims while cool air offers relief from the hot sun. As your eyes adjust you notice the rough textures of the walls as light flows down the curving ceiling of the light wells. The source is hidden from view and only the gentle gradients blesses the quiet rooms for prayers. The main congregation sits on playfully designed benches set along one of the most famous aspects of the building – the immensely thick walls pierced by openings for light. Each opening is set deep into the space and is capped by a stained glass window of varying colors and pattens. The openings fold open as they move into the interior, pouring colored light in different directions. As the sun shifts, and clouds move across the sky outside, the effects through the wall make the interior a dynamic experience, with each moment being a unique temporal existence.

The building is beautiful and a truly marvelous experience to visit. It was a pilgrimage of sorts for me, although a non religious one, unless you consider architecture to be in itself a religion, a view I won’t argue with. The power of this building can be felt physically and emotionally. It engages your senses in a truly spiritual way, seductive textures draw your hands to touch the walls, light moves your gaze to the heavens, the cool air calms your spirit, the scent of burning candles relaxes your mind. It was a building seeping with phenomenology, proving the power of design and the genius of one of the truly great architects.

Click here for a slide show of photographs of the chapel: Notre Dame du Haut – designed by Le Corbusier

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After over 50 years the site is currently being redeveloped. To bring new life to the chapel a nunnery, a new gatehouse and visitors center is being added to the site. Designed by world renowned architect, Renzo Piano, each of the new buildings is being integrated into the landscape, partially submerged into the hill side so as to not interfere with views of and from the historic chapel. The new construction was begun this past year and is planned to be completed in 2011. The access roads, parking area, and surrounding landscaping will all be redesigned to enhance the site for visitors as well as to add life and purpose to the spiritual aspect of the building. You can see images and find more information about the design by visiting the Renzo Piano Building Workshop website: http://rpbw.r.ui-pro.com/

Check out these books on The Chapel at Ronchamp and Le Corbusier’s writing and architecture: Le Corbusier: The Chapel at Ronchamp, Towards a New Architecture, Le Corbusier in Detail, and Le Corbusier : Complete Works in Eight Volumes.