ROSETA VAZ MONTEIRO ARQUITECTOS
Architects
Filipa Roseta,
Partner
Francisco Vaz Monteiro,
Partner
Design Team
Inês Fontoura
Patrícia Duarte
Bruno Almeida
Ana Margarida Mendes
Structural Engineer
JLCM, J. Câncio Martins
Acoustic Engineer
DUCTOS, V. Sampaio
Photographer
João Morgado
Hydro Engineer
JOULE, C. Gonçalves
Contractor
EDIFER
Lisboa, Portugal
ESTORIL, PORTUGAL
2009
BOA NOVA CHURCH
2014 FAITH&FORM
•
The site’s name was the “End of the World”, one of
the city’s last slums. The brief was determined in a
participative process involving local community in
order to guarantee the project’s social sustainability,
resulting in a church, a community centre, a primary
school and auditorium.
The creation of a new identity in order to rescue the
site from its decade long negative stigma was one
of the main goals. Anonymous suburban surroundings offered no interesting references; hence, the
church’s tower as an iconic reference.
A courtyard connecting to the city’s existing public spaces opens to a steep valley offering distant
seaside views. Today, the “End of the World” is
known as Senhora da Boa Nova (or Our Lady of
the “Good News”).
We believe designing sacred space should revolve
around the ability to state the supremacy of the
Void. Throughout the project’s development, the
key conceptual elements were two empty spaces:
the courtyard, a place where the community could
meet; and the nave, a sacred space presenting that
which could not be presented.
Today, the church stands within an elliptical plan,
providing a dynamic sense of scale, and covered
by an interior dome, eliminating the wall/ceiling
division and spatial references within. The windows
are deep, bringing indirect natural lighting into the
nave and distancing the suburban surroundings,
and the exterior walls curve to present an anthropomorphic object holding within the ilimited, infinite,
and irrepresentable Void.
CHURCH PLAN: STREET LEVEL
AUDITORIUM PLAN: COURTYARD LEVEL
SECTION A
SECTION B
IFRAA INTERNATIONAL AWARDS PROGRAM FOR RELIGIOUS ART AND ARCHITECTURE
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE • NEW FACILITIES
HONOR