albera monti fulfills vatican's failed promise to deliver a chapel for the poor

albera monti & associati designs a chapel as a special place to gather, pray and meditate, that can harmoniously blend with different natural and human environments. responding to the ‘lost’ purpose of the vatican’s holy see pavilion at the venice biennale, which was to challenge designers to create chapels that can be built in poor communities around the globe, the structure is built using low technology construction methods, integrating natural ventilation and cooling techniques, and using only locally-sourced, low cost materials, which are quite similar in asia, africa and latin america. 

structurally, albera monti‘s chapel is a truncated cone, with an ‘oculus’ at the top of the roof structure offering a view of the sky, and of a standing cross, whose shade is projected by sunlight on the surface of the chapel’s circular slanted roof. the cone is supported by cross-shaped wooden pillars, and the whole chapel is built on an elevated earth platform, that heightens its visibility at the heart of a community.

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edited by: sofia lekka angelopoulou | designboom