| Works
Chapel of St. Ignatius
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Inspiration
Steven Holl describes the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University very simply: a stone box, containing seven bottles of light. St. Ignatius, the university Jesuit founder, was Holl’s inspiration for the design of the chapel. The saint’s writings described spiritual life as a series of lights and darknesses and used the metaphor of a light that comes from above as a manifestation of the divine. The design of the chapel incorporates skylights and pigmentation, to create seven different qualities of light, corresponding to different programmatic elements:
Procession
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1.
Procession – natural sunlight
The
chapel takes into account the processional aspect of Catholic liturgy,
beginning outside the building with the bell tower that marks the entrance
into the sacred area. One moves up a subtle ramp past the reflecting
pool and into the chapel itself. Inside, the ramping continues into
the nave, where the colourful light arrests all in their tracks.
The arrangement of the nave is a bit of compromise, a necessary evil in
collaborative design: the chaplaincy of the university sought a more modern
worship-in-the-round format, while the students sought to continue the
procession to the altar. What results is an auditorium-style seating
arrangement, curving slightly around the raised altar, but with clearly
defined aisles for movement.