03-05,
Islands
Hermitage of Queen Saint Isabel
This project is included in the operations of rebuilding that took place after the earthquake of July 1998, which afflicted the Pico and Faial islands, responsible to the collapse of the ancient church of Almagreira – a building dating to the seventies, set in the middle of this community, and without much conceptual or contructive quality in itself. This fact has whatsoever contributed to the little affective bonds existing towards it in the inhabitants of the place.
The site of Almagreira, as a pre-existing urban structure, has been developed along a single axis and is composed of linear-plan dwellings, set perpendicularly to it and facing east. This magnific sight inspired the rest: a temple opening itself on to the sea, to Pico’s mountain and, therefore to the community itself. The aisle (7 x 7 x 21m ) has a latin cruciform plan with a small sacristy on the longer arm and a concrete window breaking the façade on the smaller arm. Over the altar, there is a skylight made of concrete marking the axis-mundi.
Despite the rationalist trend of this work, it was intended to explore the intuitive or even the transcendental aspects, manifested in the wooden retable by Artur Amaro or the inscribed metphors in the sacrarium piece by Pedro Cabrita Reis.
The site of Almagreira, as a pre-existing urban structure, has been developed along a single axis and is composed of linear-plan dwellings, set perpendicularly to it and facing east. This magnific sight inspired the rest: a temple opening itself on to the sea, to Pico’s mountain and, therefore to the community itself. The aisle (7 x 7 x 21m ) has a latin cruciform plan with a small sacristy on the longer arm and a concrete window breaking the façade on the smaller arm. Over the altar, there is a skylight made of concrete marking the axis-mundi.
Despite the rationalist trend of this work, it was intended to explore the intuitive or even the transcendental aspects, manifested in the wooden retable by Artur Amaro or the inscribed metphors in the sacrarium piece by Pedro Cabrita Reis.
