MIT Chapel - Boston, USA
Importance of Materials & Light in Design
Space Archive Project no.12 Nov 16. 2023
Around September, I had an architectural tour at MIT. The school was full of liveness around the campus with many people. In the middle of that vitality, there was a small and iconic building called MIT Chapel.
As you imagine from its name, MIT Chapel is a place for worship, located near a park and auditorium where many people intersect. It is open to everyone regardless of religion and has been used for school community events for several decades. It was built in 1955 and designed by Finnish American Architect Eero Saarinen.
It is a windowless cylindrical building, with a moat around it. The sound of water from the moat and tree from the outside purifies the soul constantly before entering the building.
As an entry, there are two main doors made of wood — one on the north and the other on the south based on the middle corridor. A long and gentle slope connects the road towards those two entrances. After stepping into the building, a stained glass hallway occurs and draws them into the worship area.
When you go deep into the chapel, sounds from the outside are completely blocked due to the windowless structure, and limited sunlight brightens up the space. Those lights are coming in from several directions, and the prior light is falling from the ceiling. A circle-shaped void brings natural light in, and it is scattered down towards the altar by a metallic sculpture created by Harry Bertoia.
A great lesson from this sculpture is that
Materiality can be felt differently depending on designs and the use of lights.
From a distance, I thought the sculpture was made of some lightweight or transparent materials such as fabric, but suddenly it made me surprised when I observed it closer. Every piece of it, even the vertical lines was created by metal. The reflection on metal and its structural design deluded my eyes to recognize it as similar to particle pieces falling from the sky. From this sculptural work, I realized understanding the characteristics of material deeply is important, and thinking about using it in different ways could create unexpected results.
While light from the ceiling acts as the chapel’s main character, a sub-light brightens up the space quietly. It feels like sunrise on the horizon because it is rising from the hidden window on the bottom of the wall. The water from the outside reflects the natural light and it comes inside through those windows. The combination of lights and a wavy wall shape makes the overall atmosphere even softer and calm.
Interestingly, the different ways they treated brick inside and outside tell us the same lesson. Even though they use identical brick materials throughout the whole architecture, the delivered feelings are contrary at the exterior and interior. The outside brick gives us a solid impression and becomes even stronger with intensive sunlight. But the inside feels like a smooth clay surface due to the wavy structure, and warm subtle lighting emphasizes that smoothness.
Overall, the building is designed with just a few types of materials, however, it shows diverse possibilities with the same elements. Through this visit, I recognized a various potentials can be revealed depending on abundant thoughts behind it.
It was a pleasure to experience those with the naked eye. Hopefully, keep this in mind, and apply what I’ve learned to my future projects.