DIVINE TRIANGULATION

Words :: Will Jones // Images :: Marc Rolinet, M. Moulinet/Polkop

There is something intriguing about the combination of rigidly geometric shapes and natural form. The contrast between the ultimately controlled and completely feral: it forces a reassessment of both entities and an examination of the links between them. What brings these opposing elements together? How does each impact the other? Why here, why now?

The Chapel of the Deaconesses of Reuilly in Versailles, France, is a building that asks all of the above and then provides answers, or justification, in spadefuls. It has been designed and built to replace a simple canvas marquee that formerly provided a place of worship for the religious community of the Deaconesses of Reuilly. The tent and surrounding parkland were severely damaged in a gale in 1999 and the congregation asked architect Marc Rolinet to design a new more durable chapel.
Rolinet’s rigorous modernist approach has produced a building of strict lines and taut sensibility. Nothing about it is frivolous; every aspect has a function – and yet it is enchanting and almost playful. The design is described by the architect as “a symbolic echo of the tent – a discreet, but warm and welcoming, refuge.”
Rolinet states that the building is “a metaphor for unity of the spiritual and corporeal, its two tiers designed to aesthetically counterbalance each other. The geometric, triangular form of a transparent glass casing envelops a sculptural, organic-form interior ‘shell.’” Here lies the beauty of the design: the architect has sought a juxtaposition of natural and man-made – organic and inorganic – with the chapel’s form and its surroundings. Inside, however, the curvaceous timber lattice of the inner chapel contrasts again with the facade and connects with the trees and landscape beyond.
These intriguing layers build to create a building, triangular in plan, that is more than the sum of its parts. The fully glazed facade provides almost 360-degree exposure to daylight, filtered only marginally through tall trees and the slatted timber shades to the roof. The heavy use of glass allows the interior spaces to be flooded with natural light: this then filters through the latticework of the inner chapel, creating a golden glow and a warm, calming ambience. Around this central core, the building inspires action and enjoyment. The numerous shading surfaces – both natural and built – and the reflectance of the glass provide a dramatic interplay of light, which gives an animated feel to the building that is in counterpoint with the pureness of its structural lines.
Rolinet says, “One of the times that interest me most is the morning between 10 a.m. and midday, because the sun appears and in its movement it highlights what are not simply windows looking onto the outside, but an active relationship between interior and exterior. It is a constant allusion to movement in a place that should be serene and anchored in the ground: it is a religious space but also a dynamic, creative space.”
While light plays an important part in the spiritual ambience, the use of wood and stone reinforces the chapel’s connection to the earth and its integration into its woodland environment. It also makes reference to historical religious buildings, and in doing so gives Rolinet’s chapel a durability in time, establishing it as both contemporary and lasting. Similarly, the design and construction of the building took from both new and old. Rolinet used the latest 3D computer modelling techniques to design his concept, while traditional steam-bath bending techniques were used to form the curved-Scots-pine inner chapel.

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Interior of an upturned wooden shell forms the oblong contemporary chapel, built of superimposed pine strips that were individually steam-curved on site.