Chapelle Saint Bernard de Clairvaux  (6,482 KB)

Chapelle St Bernard de Clairvaux

This work highlights the spiritual and visionary ideas of Saint Bernard de Clairvaux and based on a religious experience defined as a “mystical vision of harmony that divine reason has established throughout the cosmos” [1]. This quality is attained through abstract geometrical forms and proportions evidenced by the square, the circle, the triangle, light/time and the cosmos. When combined with spiritual belief these elements create a 'divine harmony' and the basis for communion among the pilgrims.

The Geometrical and Proportional Space of the Divine

The careful juxtaposition of the square and the circle produces a third dimension, the cylinder, defining the proportional relationship between 1 and π. The geometry of the cosmos intersects the cylinder to emit light. The triangle is confronted by the circle to produce a second three dimensional body, the cone, a temporal beacon. The combined elements describe a four dimensional map of the heavens.

The Religious Experience

The aforementioned geometrical and proportional compositions create the chapel, the seed. The chapel is designed in memory of Saint Bernard de Clairvaux; its walls are engraved with his sermons and texts and are illuminated throughout the yearly solar cycles. The divine is revealed when the magic of time, light, form, the human spirit and soul interact. These are the mystical harmonies of life and the chapel.

The Landscape, Materials, Scales and Function

The chapel is positioned along the axis of the main church of the Clairvaux Abbey; however, outside the wall of the cloister as to not disturb the daily rituals of the monks. It shall be near a source of clean water in the valley. It is tilted along the Earth’s ecliptic facing the heavens. The chapel is built by local men and of local stone. It is small in scale and not a monument. The exterior foyer symbolizes the forest and serves the purposes of sheltering ceremonies both above and below its canopy to remind the pilgrim of the sacrifice made by the Cistercian monks. The inner chamber is the space of worship, a calendar for prayer. Its walls are marked by the sun’s rays which penetrate through the cuts formed by the heavenly geometries throughout the day and year. On religious days the sun illuminates specific sermons written by Saint Bernard de Clairvaux and serve as the basis for worship and memory.

If architecture fails us it is not a result of forms or functions it is due to a lack of poetic vision; belief manifested through will. I therefore propose a chapel based on the poetic visions of Saint Bernard de Clairvaux and those who shape it to celebrate silence, light, prayer, peace, joy and the sacrifice of men.

[1] The Gothic Cathedral, Otto von Simson, 1956 Published by Bollinger Foundation Inc., New York , N.Y.