This project was the winner of a call for tender issued in 2001 by the Secretariat of the Archbishopric of…
This project was the winner of a call for tender issued in 2001 by the Secretariat of the Archbishopric of Valencia for the construction of new places of worship.
The requested programme consisted of designing and constructing the church and the parish annexes. Due to urban planning regulations, we decided that the two spaces would be joined, while remaining clearly differentiated in material and functional terms with a clear typology. They share the same external entrances: one from Avenida Blasco Ibáñez preceded by a large open space, and another from Plaza Mestre Ripoll. Both of these entrances lead to a spacious foyer, which provides access to the various annexes.
The church and the Santísimo chapel are accessed via a second foyer linked to the entrance hall, which serves as an atrium and anteroom for these spaces used for strictly religious purposes. This double-height space is beautifully lit by a large window overlooking Plaza Mestre Ripoll.
In terms of the composition of the volumes, the most striking image of the church can be seen from Avenida Blasco Ibáñez. The façade on this side of the building features a bas-relief mural measuring 10 x 5.20 m which displays motifs evoking the fruit of the Holy Spirit and a tower which rises up above the building like the old bell towers and acts as a skylight above the presbytery. The tower filters the sunlight, channelling it downwards onto the Cross and filling the presbytery, casting intense light on the altar positioned in the centre.
The altarpiece presiding over the church is another key element of our intervention. It features a composition of planes at different angles, oriented in such a way that it traps the light entering from the side windows and projects it onto its edges and lines, creating an interplay of light and shadow converging towards the image of the Holy Spirit.
The building’s façade combines limestone cladding on the walls of the lower floor and the body of the tower with a white monolayer cladding on the rest of the building.
