Design an interconfessional sacred space that belongs to everyone — rooted in the campus landscape, open to all beliefs.
Project Brief
An intensive one-week design workshop at Politecnico di Milano, Bovisa campus, organized in collaboration with the Lombardy Episcopal Conference. Students were given two defining objectives:
Dual-Purpose Space
A single space serving both Christian liturgical celebration with a clear identity and interfaith meditation welcoming people of all backgrounds and beliefs.
Campus Wellbeing
The spiritual space would enhance the psychophysical wellness, inclusion, and multiculturalism of the international student body at the new Bovisa Nord Campus.
Site: Gasometer Park
The project is sited within the Gasometer Park area of Bovisa — a natural setting that emphasizes contemplation amid the historical industrial structures of the campus.
The brief demanded architecture that could hold stillness and openness simultaneously — a building for everyone, and for no single belief.
Concept & Prompt
Concept Development
Three architectural instruments define the building — each translating the concept into spatial resolution:
The Exoskeleton
A reticular wooden lattice forms the outer structure — permeable, light-filtering, and structural. It frames the sky above and the campus landscape beyond, reading as a woven threshold between inside and outside.
The Membrane
The organic interior volume houses the liturgical space — fluid, soft, and free of solid walls. Visual permeability throughout invites contemplation; the absence of partition keeps spirituality from being confined.
Water & Ground
A water feature at the building's base symbolizes purification — an element present in places of prayer across diverse traditions. The paved access path acts as a transition from the campus's daily rhythm to the building's introspective dimension.
The plans and sections articulate how the three systems layer: the exoskeleton defines the outer boundary, the membrane carves the interior volume, and the ground plane anchors both to the landscape.
Visualization
Physical Model
