Chapel at Boliqueime


Chapel at Boliqueime

Chapel at Boliqueime

Vasco Lopes Arquitectos

STATUS
Built

AREA
0 Sqft - 1000 Sqft

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Boliqueime, Portugal

TYPE
Cultural › Religious

As a social institution with strong ties to the Catholic Church, it makes perfect sense for the “Santa Casa da Misericórdia” to add a new chapel and mortuary to the existing structure.

Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime

The new proposal, although a semi-private religious structure, is intended to be open to the general public, which construction commenced in 2008, and was only completed in 2021.

The new chapel is to be an enclosed structure situated on the south slope of the site, thereby taking advantage of its steepness in order to allow the Mortuary to be “buried”, thus allowing an association with its respective symbolic value.

Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime

In addition, this design strategy takes advantage of a direct access to the exterior, to the south.

The Chapel, will be on the upper level, itself having direct access to the opposite side, characterized by an open court whose perimeter is the existing street on one side, and existing support structures along the remaining sides.

Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime

The interlocking nature of the two levels allows for creating a volume characterized by a sense of deprivation and emptiness, where the light always enters through highlights, while at the same time providing defused, atmospheric spatial lighting throughout the day.

Through volumetric purity, and these same volumes being set into the hillside, the new proposal will be characterized as an imposing white box, with a cruciform void in cut out from the outer wall, the chapel intends to be a reference toward a minimalist simplicity.

Chapel at Boliqueime


Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime


Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime
Chapel at Boliqueime


Chapel at Boliqueime