Seeing the invisible

Built reusing one hundred years old bricks from a dismantled rural house, the chapel designed by Nicolás Campodonico in the Argentinian Pampa plains deeply interacts with light and shadows.

Nicolás Campodonico, San Bernardo chapel, 2015

Nicolás Campodonico designed a religious building located in the Pampa plains, in the east of the province of Cordoba, Argentina. The Saint Bernard’s Chapel (being San Bernard the local patron saint) rises in a small grove.

Nicolás Campodonico, Saint Bernard’s Chapel, 2015

The land was originally occupied by a rural house and its yards: they were both dismantled and their materials reused for the construction, using the one-hundred-year-old bricks. The site doesn’t have electricity or any other utilities, in an environment where nature imposes its own conditions.

The chapel’s volume, situated between the trees and the wide open countryside, opens up towards the sun, capturing the natural light of the sunset in the interior. Outside, vertical and horizontal poles are placed separately and projected towards the interior. As a result, every day all year round, their shadow slide along the curved interior, until they overlap with each other in a symbolic ritual.

Saint Bernard’s Chapel, Zona Rural, La Playosa, Córdoba, Argentina
Program: church
Architect: Nicolás Campodonico
Collaborators: Martin Lavayén, Soledad Cugno, Virginia Theilig, Gabriel Stivala, Tomás Balparda, Pablo Taberna, Gastón Kibysz
Engineering: Carlos Geremía
Contractor: Jerónimo Silva
Total area: 10,000 sqm
Built area: 92 sqm
Completion: 2015

Seeing the invisible

Built reusing one hundred years old bricks from a dismantled rural house, the chapel designed by Nicolás Campodonico in the Argentinian Pampa plains deeply interacts with light and shadows.

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