Philosophy
Knowing that the light moves from east to west
narrowed down my design options. I wanted to take advantage of the morning light
because the average service in any denomination is in the morning. Therefore I
have the front of the chapels on the east side of the structure.
I designed the Main chapel to receive the morning
light into the front of the chapel.
The Meditation side chapel also is designed to receive
the majority of its light from the morning/east light into the front of the
chapel. This was to give it a “Moving Forward” feeling to it for
anyone who goes there during the morning. I also raised it to the second floor
for the same reason. This actually turned out to served a dual purpose because
if it hadn’t been lifted up, the morning sun would have been blocked by
Smith hall.
The Memorial side chapel was basically designed
opposite of the Meditation side chapel in order to give it a sense of
reflection on where your coming from. In order to do this I designed all of the
natural light to be brought in through the back of the chapel so that the light
would be behind those inside. Also, it brings in the evening light rather than
the morning light so that it can be used to finish out the day before going to
the meditation chapel in the morning.
And for the Lobby I put in long curved windows that
actually follow the light as it curves to the south and back during the day.
This way the Lobby will always have some angle of light.