The Chapel House / Ignacio Hornillos

Curated by Clara Ott

Architects: Ignacio Hornillos
Year: 2018
Photographs:Fernando Alda

Text description provided by the architects. The Chapel House responds to the particular needs of the clients. It is a marriage with 9 children and who have a strong religious feeling. The result seeks harmony with the existing home by introducing 4 objects that generate a spatial and functional change through 4 architectural operations. Attach = Pavilion; Insert = Main bedroom; Sift = Porch; Excavate = Chapel

The new pavilion is located in the footprint of an old garage construction. The use change and an elongated and rhythmic volume, build with a cozy interior, link the pool with the garden. The curved wall invites you to discover the back house and a 6 meters large wood window gives light and serves at the same time as a facade for the large pines who are in the existing plot. From this volume, there is a lower and narrower subpavilion, parallel to the main house, which hides the necessary uses to store bicycles and make barbecues on sunny days.

Due to the large family that they form, an order from the clients was to be able to insert a mini-apartment for them into the home. It is a new open and tidy room. The materials are in line with the reform and the new bedroom aim to be an oasis of intimacy from the bustle of 9 children. The bathroom is integrated through the use of oak wood lattices that characterize the space without losing privacy. The use of the pool changes completely through a space in shade and a new pavement. In front of the pavilion and on the other side of the pool a complex and light structure is built where you can set a table and enjoy a meeting under the shadow of nature.

The metal structure orders the space, builds a framework for the vegetation, allows privacy with the neighbor and creates a sieve for the hot months. This extension would not be the same if it did not have the prominence of the buried chapel. As if it were a hidden chest, the family introduce the place of worship on the foundations of the old house. A silent and climatically conditioned place where to raise a place of prayer with noble materials.

The access is organized through some stairs near the pavilion where a door indicates the use of the space and through the window, it discovers a surprising interior. The furniture has been entirely made to measure, where the section of each element reproduces the symbol of the cross to convey greater coherence with the prayer space. There are two clearly differentiated worlds, the earthly place in earth colors and rough walls in front of the bright and sober altar that is built with white marble and noble metals such as iron and bronze.

In short, the project is tailored to specific needs and does so through 4 very clean and respectful architectural operations with the original housing. The 4 architectural operations give the old house a new character through 4 elements that respect the above and enhance contemporary and special housing. Conceived more as 4 pieces of furniture in well-placed, the house of the chapel responds integratively to a special and respectful commission.