Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos - Church of Senhora da Boa Nova, Estoril, Portugal

Features

Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos
Church of Senhora da Boa Nova
Estoril, Portugal

Photo: Joao Morgado

The site, one of the city’s last slums, was named the “End of the World.” To the east and south the suburban surroundings had no iconic references, to the west there was a steep valley reaching out to distant views. In order to rescue the site from its decade long negative stigma the community challenged the architects to create a new identity.

Since the anonymous surroundings offered no interesting references the architects decided to design the church tower as an iconic reference within the existing cityscape.

Photo: Joao Morgado

The multifunctional program, the church, a community center, a primary school and an auditorium, is organized around a courtyard, open to the valley and views, that relates to the city’s existing public spaces.

Photo: Joao Morgado

“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. We wished the nave to be an introspective, infinite, and irrepresentable space. In order to achieve this, we followed creative paths suggested by the works of Bernini, Piranesi and Rachel Whiteread.”
Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos

Photo: Joao Morgado

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 limited, infinite, and irrepresentable Void.

The “End of the World” is now known as “Senhora da Boa Nova” (or Our Lady of the “Good News”).

Sketch courtesy Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos

Drawing courtesy Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos
Site Plan

Drawing courtesy Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos
North Elevation

Drawing courtesy Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos
West Elevation

Drawing courtesy Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos
East Elevation

Drawing courtesy Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos
South Elevation

Site area: 14,500 square meters
Total area buildings: 12,000 square meters

Completed: 2009

Client: Centro Paroquial do Estoril
Architects: Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos
Filipa Roseta & Francisco Vaz Monteiro
Collaborators:
Maria Inês Fontoura
Bruno Almeida
Patrícia Duarte
Inês Canas
Margarida Mendes
Structural Engineer: J.L.Câncio Martins
Water Systems: Ductos
Mechanical and Electrical Systems: Joule
Acoustic: Acústica e Ambiente;
Landscape Architecture: Roseta Vaz Monteiro Arquitectos

Photographed by: Joao Morgado

May 2, 2011