1200 bricks chapel

The little chapel by S-AR in Santiago features 1200 bricks attached to a metallic structure, but without binding between them, so they practically appear to float.

Monterrey-based architectural practice S-AR designed a small construction for a little chapel located in a garden. It’s a sanctuary to be alone and meditate within the open green space. It’s also a structure that relates to a human scale in size and to a spiritual one in use.

Img.1 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, Santiago, Mexico, 2016
Img.2 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, Santiago, Mexico, 2016
Img.3 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, Santiago, Mexico, 2016
Img.4 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, Santiago, Mexico, 2016
Img.5 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, Santiago, Mexico, 2016
Img.6 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, construction method
Img.7 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, scale model
Img.7 S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, scale model

  The structure is a constructive exercise under a repetitive tension system that comprises 1200 pieces of hollow red brick separated between them but united by a set of “guides” in the form of steel rods, which form rings that vary in size, according to the height of the chapel. The pieces are attached to the metallic structure with mortar but there’s no binding between them so they practically appear to float.

S-AR, 1200 Bricks Little Chapel, Santiago, Mexico, 2016


1200 Bricks Little Chapel, Santiago, Mexico
Program: chapel
Architect: S-AR – Cesar Guerrero, Ana Cecilia Garza
Design team: Marisol González, Carmen García, Hugo Bernal
Construction: Gonzalo Taméz, Benancio Oviedo, José Guadalupe Flores, Damian Flores
Area: 4,25 sqm
Completion: 2016