Undurraga Deves Arquitectos, LTDA.

Capilla del Retiro

Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone

CAPILLA DEL RETIRO

Undurraga Devés Arquitectos

ARCHITECTS
Undurraga Devés Arquitectos

LOCATION
Calle Larga, Chile

CATEGORY
Chapel

AREA
620.0 m2

PROJECT YEAR
2009

PHOTOGRAPHS
Sergio Pirrone

Text description provided by architect.

Dark, inmemorial things whose fragments remain lodged in the soul of the artist" Paul Klee.

Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone

Once again we can visualize what is primitive, hand-crafted and tectonic, without making us nostalgic, merely as a silent resistance to squander, frivolity and noise.

Seventy kilometers to the north of Santiago lies the Valley of the Andes, one of the most beautiful and fertile areas in the Center of Chile.

Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone

There, the Sanctuary of Teresa de los Andes is located, sprawled next to the Carmelite Monastery of Auco.

It is here and at the foot of Mount Carmelo that the Capilla del Retiro was built, next door to the guest house where visitors can stay.

It is visited by pilgrims, full of a desire for transcendence and in search of silence and recollection.

Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone

The chapel rises as a confirmation of the extraordinary geography that surrounds it, while respecting the axes established by the series of preexisting buildings. Concrete is the main material of the building’s structure.

Its volume, strictly economical, rises up from a crosspiece of 4 beams in the shape of a cross that is supported with the least possible structural elements so that its relationship with the ground is slight but sufficient. Shape and structure here are an indissoluble synthesis.

Under the strict geometry of the concrete a patio was excavated, whose rustic stone wall rises hazardously up and around the chapel, compressing and expanding that space of light.

Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone

As a counterpoint to the magnitude of the geographic surroundings, the interior was designed in the shape of a wooden box recycled from old railway lines.

This box hangs from the concrete structure and lies 2 meters under the beams that support it, limiting the view of the emptiness outside.

Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone

The whole of this piece, which appears to levitate over the ground, refers us to the spiritual dimension inside.

This space is illuminated from the lower part, leaving a space to view a weightless body in the interior that hides the rationality of its supports, whilst the exterior affords us a view of the stone wall that surrounds the patio.

The upper light has been restricted so as to maintain a certain half-light in the box, which is heightened by the dark color of the wood.

Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone
Capilla del Retiro
© Sergio Pirrone

Here, the duality of the rational exterior / metaphysical interior, so typical of Gothic architecture, assumes a new expression of a commitment to modernity.

Capilla del Retiro
Capilla del Retiro


Capilla del Retiro
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Undurraga Deves Arquitectos, LTDA.
T +56 2 24980650
Undurraga Deves Arquitectos, LTDA.
Pdte Errázuriz 2999, 7550357 Las Condes, Región Metropolitana, Chile