Sarah Schober

California Baptist University

Professor: Jacob Slagill

It is a collective human experience to seek out an understanding of purpose on a meta level, yet we cannot achieve this without intention. By producing a quietly beautiful and intimate physical environment, the curious individual is permitted to sit alone with their thoughts and transcend a tangible world, immersing themselves within the ultimate reality of their existence. It is in this abstract space where one confronts their reality to discover peaceful understanding in the spiritual.

Through the careful observation of the site’s existing dynamics, three main axes were discovered to be used as the formal foundation for the design. By intersecting these axes with the site, three main structures are formed, which impact the negative space of the project through the formation of a central courtyard. By sinking this portion of land down into the site, it allows for a further layer of procession before entering and encountering the chapel, therefore preparing visitors for their ultimate arrival. Additionally, this space embeds the user into a moment of quiet pause, as they are immersed in the natural foliage and pause in the site, and can use this space as a place of rest.

By referencing academic and natural precedents, the project produces an environment of intimate seclusion and immersion into thought which enables one to transcend their physical reality to discover peaceful understanding in the spiritual.