Capela Cheia de Graça by Cerejeira Fontes Architects

Description of project by Cerejeira Fontes

The Capela Cheia de Graça is inserted in the Immaculate Conception Chapel, in Braga.

The project focused on the restoration of the Immaculate Conception Chapel and the choir, transforming it into a space reserved for the inhabitants of the Seminary - the Capela Cheia de Graça. The total right foot of the intervention space and the exterior walls of the even leaving the existing "skin" of stone that manifests in a sculptural way around the chapels.

The Chapel rises in wood, from the support structure to the plans that give it the space and is composed of several pieces of wood, fitting together, creating a balanced structure that manifests as a forest at the entrance of the sacred space. Its canopy creates a space dedicated to the inhabitants of the Seminary and its trunks a filter between the profane space and the sacred space, allowing the visitor to surrender to the space, surrender to the dimension of the senses.

A concrete vault surrounds the chapels, imposing itself simple, light and suspended in space, defying its own materiality. The features in the vault that extend through its concrete walls create moments of openness, allowing to filter the sunlight and grant a "quiet" rigor and greater dignity to the structural elements of the roof. The vault creates along with the remaining elements a space of absolute "restless silence" referring to introspection.

This concrete vault has a thickness of 12cm and is supported by a steel structure almost imperceptible to the observer, allowing it to appear suspended.

The space is also endowed with a superior acoustic quality, its composition in acoustic sandwich panel in the cover and the elongated form of the vault allow a better performance. This brings another level of spatial interpretation, allowing space to be manifested by sound, creating a dialogue between space and the user. Facing this vault, the Capela Cheia de Graça assumes the circular form favoring the meeting, privacy and introspection to the inhabitants of the Seminary.

In the background, a marble slit rises, backlit naturally, transporting the viewer to another physical and spiritual dimension.

Thus, by its composition and scale was given to this space a level of superior intelligibility and a spiritual dimension, allowing the dialogue between space, the individual and the divine.