art y tech2
Chapel for Retamar School
The chapel is a small religious building which will substitute the temporary shortage of an oratorio for the schools regular liturgical services. It is being developed entirely on one floor, presiding the new northern entrance to the complex.
Location
Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
Client
Colegio Retamar
Program
Chapel
Year
2009
Status
Built
The programme of needs is very simple, it consists of the main space in which there is the presbytery raised one step, the area destined for the faithful with benches with a capacity for 40 people and two confessionals located at the back. The entrance is in the form of an atrium, of lower height, with two double doors to access it from the outside and another two single-leaf doors for access from this atrium to the interior of the main chamber.
The presbytery has the altarpiece of the former Oratory, recovering the altar of the same. This is centred in the main space with the tabernacle at its axis. To its left is the ambo and to the right is the seat with the crucifix.
Formally, a brick perimeter enclosure is "surmounted" by a rotated volume of zinc sheeting and glass, this being the main space of the chapel. The fractioned spaces resulting from this central presence are the atrium, the confessional and the sacristy, which incorporates a small installations room containing a water basin and the heat pump for the building's air conditioning.
The purpose of the latter is simply to temper the air, to achieve a basic comfort situation, although the natural cross ventilation of the room will, in itself, allow for a pleasant indoor temperature in most cases.
The chapel also has low-energy artificial lighting integrated into the false wooden ceiling, which in turn has a sound-absorbing function. The large upper window, illuminated by LEDs and becoming a stained glass window, acts as a sign of identity towards the outside.
In front of the building, there is a paved square and, behind it, to the west, a children's play area with a sandpit, designed for the youngest members of the school.