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Architects: Ábalos + Sentkiewicz arquitectos
- Area: 2837 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs: Zhang Yong
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Lead Architects: Iñaki Ábalos, Renata Sentkiewicz
Text description provided by the architects. The Church is located in the southern corner of the entrance to the new urban development of New Bund, located south of the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai. This unique location makes the project the natural gateway to the international residential area of the new district, as well as part of a linear park that runs along the Huangpu River, in accordance with urban planning. The proximity of the infrastructures of the subway to the west conditions the geometry of the plot and endows it with a marked longitudinal character.
The configuration of the project segregates the secular and religious functions through a covered passage that emphasizes access to the temple and enables the necessary ventilation of the interior spaces. In combination with this lower step, the triangular bell tower enhances the role of the Church as a landmark on an urban scale.
The central space of the ensemble, the main chapel, emphasizes its symbolic character as a community space by integrating, in the form of a diaphanous auditorium, optimal acoustic and visual features thanks to a balanced volume-surface relationship.
In contact with the park there is a monumental public staircase that gives access to the ecclesiastical services of the upper floor and that leads the visitor, through a serpentine ascent, to the garden roof of the building: a natural belvedere over the park and the Huangpu river that reminds us of the historical tradition of accessible roofs in European cathedrals such as Milan, Barcelona or Paris.
