The Eucharistic Lighthouse, finalist in the 17th BIGMAT INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE AWARD

This work, designed by the architect Eduardo Delgado (Resetland) and Javier Viver and executed in Granda Art Workshops has been selected from more than 900 projects from 7 European countries for the 17 BIGMAT INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE AWARD

We show you how this chapel was erected in the center of Madrid for almost two days and is now a finalist in the category "Ephemeral Architecture". of these internationally recognized awards. If you like, you can vote this sacred architecture project in the "Public Prize" category until October 28, 2017.

This chapel, in the shape of a hemispherical dome, was created to host the Eucharistic adoration that took place in Madrid during the weekend of the Feast of Families 2012. It was built to house a monstrance during the days of the meeting and to allow anyone who wished to attend a Eucharistic exposition in the center of Madrid.

The project was directed and designed by Eduardo Delgado Orusco and Javier Viver, inspired by projects such as Constantin Brancusi's endless-column or Franisco Alonso's San Isidro Tower-Museum project for the approach of the lighthouse-exhibitor, whose geometrization collaborated to provide the whole with verticality and growth and a certain plastic vibration. The execution and assembly was carried out by Talleres de Arte Granda.from where we made each of the pieces of this work. A team of our workshops moved to the Plaza de Colón for its subsequent assembly and tuning.

The monstrance, raised on a 3-meter-high lighthouse-display, was placed in the central axis of the dome, dominating and hierarchizing the space.. This disposition achieved that, in a natural way, all eyes were directed to this point, turning the monstrance into the center of the interior space. This monstrance was made in 1930 by Don Felix Granda, in order to serve, as on this occasion, as a throne for the Sacred Form.

Surrounding the central area, a circular space of about 4 meters in diameter was set aside for the faithful to stick their candles in lamp stands, thus creating a constellation of flowers and candles with their offerings..

The dome functioned as a ceiling and screen, as it projected the images of the solar cycle from dawn to dusk, like a large audiovisual altarpiece.. For 40 hours, this 95m2 enclosure became a sacred space full of symbolism: Christ as a rising sun that illuminates the darkness with its clarity, Christ as a lighthouse -Light of the world- that illuminates the earth under the firmament.

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